Change of site is ruled out for new Biggar Primary

Existing primary...is to be demolished under the new Biggar school plans (Pic Lindsay Addison)

They have protested that the planned three-storey school is much too large for the South Back Road site.

“It is such a massive building for such a small site,” Alan Campbell told the Gazette this week.

At a public meeting in November he claimed the site did not have nearly enough space for playground and outdoor activities.

And he disputed a response from the council that the site had enough playing space.

He and other objectors had hoped that land would be made available at the greenfield site off Edinburgh Road.

Mr Campell said that Story Homes had plans to build 285 new houses there and it looked as if the council was about to grant that, although the Local Plan stated there should be only 166 homes.

“If SLC chose to comply with the Local Plan, there would be more than enough land left over to build a new school which meets legal minimum requirements,” he said.

But in a response, Vance Sinclair, of the council’s schools modernisation team, said that discussions had taken place with the developer about the possibility of it providing land for a new school or a land swap.

He said: “The developer was not interested in discussing this proposal in any detail.”

For more on this, pick up a copy of this week’s Carluke and Lanark Gazette.