Where should a new school in south Formartine go?
Councillors at the latest meeting of the Formartine area committee on Tuesday were presented with a dilemma over the potential location of a new primary school for south Formartine.
Following discussion of a regular update to the committee on school roll forecasts, which indicates where pupil numbers are rising or falling, for Formartine with both Balmedie and Foveran primary schools expected to go over capacity in the coming years.
In order to address these issues work has been ongoing to identify a potential site for a new primary to serve the south Formartine area.
A new paper brought to the committee for comment identified sites at Foveran and Balmedie.
A lengthy debate followed with councillors raising a number of questions arising from the paper.
Councillor Andrew Hassan questioned: "Why is there no nursery provision in plans" and cited the example of Potterton where the community hall is out of commission for community use for considerable time due being the only local venue to do this.
He also questions the lack of developer obligations towards any new school from the list of new housing sites which were being added in the Local Development Plan.
Replying for the Education Service, Rachael Goldring said "At present any figures are a high level indicative cost of a building and look no further; "They only address where it is, then we look at whats in it.
"Nursery provision is not ruled out its simply not at that stage of assessment."
She added: "The next housing land audit is factored into a live forecast and developer obligations are addressed when they come forward, so it is a moving target on that one."
The protracted history of the failure to bring forward a Blackdog site was brought up with a brief explanation offered in the paper and to councillors who were newer to their roles.
Councillor Jenny Nicol raised the issue of the potential impact on children and families through changing catchment areas and in particular in a town which could have two which she said would be "divisive."
She commented: "I appreciate the work done but I don't feel it is reflective of the full situation as there is little explination of how we reached this point (a lot of it historical), there is a lack of transparency with the public who continue to ask why not at Blackdog ?"
"Looking at the sites in option are they developable?
"The bias is towards Balmedie but there are 200 new homes in the works at Potterton.
"Why has there been no community engagement in options - the public are disenfranchised on why others sites have been excluded."
Fellow councillor Isobel Davidson said: "This has been a long running discussion for many years - and I have engaged on it in the past and nothing is moving forward so I am pleased to see some recomendations.
"However I have concerns about two schools in one smallish town.
"Location is about place and adding to community capacity - you don't get that by adding a second school into a small town that already has one. "That is divisive - clear all along that we should not have a second school at Balmedie.
"There are benefits to having schools on either side of the A90 are part of the bigger picture - wrap around care is important for viability or communities."
On Blackdog councillor Paul Johnson said: "Historically Blackdog was accepted as the best site due to development of bussiness land and housing. "Accepting all that has been said before from councillors, but I throw in thought - we need around 5ha for a school.
"In Balmedie on site set aside for industrial use we disposed of part of it for a church (regional) and that's fine, some other went to housing - could there be negotiation with developers for more of that in return for an appropriate site in another location - possible sites exist in south formartine eg Blackdog?.
"I take the positive view that we still have sites in south formartine that could be obtained through negotiation - because we own the land makes it convenient but not so if our overriding purpose is to develop communities -fastest way through this is along a negotiated line."
Adding his thoughts councillor John Crawley said: "As a newish councillor there is a lot of talk of Potterton and Blackdog that dropped out of the picture - why are we looking at the others other than conveniance?."
Councillor Anne Stirling said: "We also have an issue of sustainability and place has to be at the heart of all of this - we recognise the Balmedie site is zoned for housing - but that should not be the main driver for where it goes.
"It has to be in the right place and clearly that is the debate we have before us and we also have to be very mindful about equitable provision in regard to out of school care."
Comments from the committee will now be taken forward for discussion by the Education Committee.
