VIDEO – Save the Brae fight goes on

The council issued a report  on 21 February 2013 about their proposed closure of Castlebrae Community High School. The proposal is that the building will be closed and councillors believe that pupils would move to either Portobello High School or Holy Rood High School.

The campaign group Save the Brae met outside the City Chambers this morning to let councillors know that they had not yet given up their fight to save their school. They have issued this statement:-

The new catchment area that will be created if Castlebrae closes will not be able to meet in-catchment placing requests from August 2014.

Councillors are soon to vote on the closure, but they will also be voting to create a new catchment area that will encompass both Portobello and Craigmillar. It will be massive. Portobello High is the biggest in the city and  has a capacity for 1400 pupils. But it will not be big enough.

And neither will Liberton High. The Closure of Castle Brae High School will have ramifications for ANY child in the new catchment area seeking to attend Porty after August 2013. There may well be no space for them. After from 2014 it will be a big problem for Liberton too.

The paper recommending Closure of Castlebrae states: … “There is spare capacity at neighbouring schools until 2020.”

This is quite untrue. There is no capacity. And it will get much worse after 2014. For more information, go to www.kidsnotsuits.com/save-the-brae-plea See Fib 5.

The Reporter spoke to some of the campaigners and their supporters about their campaign to keep the school open:-

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JeFeJlLOjg&w=560&h=315]

Sheila Gilmore MP for Edinburgh East said:-“The consultation report has not sufficently answered some of the major concerns about the proposals. Pupil Roll projections are stated as demonstrating that there is sufficient space in the neighbouring schools. But we know that the projections provided to the last council in support of school closures have turned out already to have been wrong.”

Kezia Dugdale MSP said:-“Castlebrae is at the heart of the local community. If the council votes to close the school it will be yet another blow to the regeneration of Craigmillar and heart-breaking for so many community activists who have fought the closure so long.”