A £65m provision for a new school campus together with further construction projects for education has been revealed for Dundee’s five-year capital plan.
The £382m programme makes provision for the new East End Community Campus for Braeview and Craigie High Schools, after a successful bid for funding from the Scottish Government for partnered support. A project board has already been established, with work progressing towards the design of a new low carbon facility. The plan is to open the campus in August 2025.
£16m has also been added to the Capital Plan for the development of a new primary school at the Western Gateway and £4.2m fully funded by Perth & Kinross Council for the development of an extension to the south side of Harris Academy.
Convener of Dundee City Council’s children and families service committee, Stewart Hunter, said: “With the money identified in this capital plan for a new East End Campus, secondary school buildings in parts of the city where there are significant challenges with poverty will be carefully designed to support learning in the future to help prepare pupils for the challenges of life after school”.
“This is a bold and ambitious plan to transform for the future what I am sure will be an exciting educational environment at a community campus where the education of pupils will benefit from advantages of scale that current schools are not able to offer”.
“The further investment in the school estate across other parts of the city in this plan follow a long-term programme of school building improvements which has been going on in every part of Dundee for a number of years”.
To reflect the council’s commitment to implement measures that improve the carbon footprint of the city, provision has been made in the capital plan. The council is ensuring that the design of the building considers energey efficiences and carbon reduction measures, and that the costs of these measures are included within the overall cost of the project.
Potential future funding could become available from a number of sources which include Scottish National Investment Bank and Green New Deal which will help the council to focus on decarbonising heat and transport which in turn will support Scotland’s transition to a net zero economy.
Convener of the policy and resources committee, John Alexander, said: “The hundreds of millions of pounds identified in the capital plan that the council invests in construction and maintenance schemes across the city provides employment and other economic benefits for our citizens”.
“This latest version of the plan helps to lay the foundations to make Dundee a smarter, fairer and more sustainable place for everyone. People in all of our communities will feel the benefit of this massive investment in many different ways, through new schools, better leisure facilities or through the jobs and wealth that the plan sustains”.
Also highlighted as part of the new plan is the investment in buildings and infrastructure which support leisure and cultural facilities in the city. Together with a £7m allocation for investment in facilities at the Dundee Ice Arena, £3.5m has also been earmarked for refurbishment and upgrade works at the Dundee Contemporary Arts Centre.
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