A £60 million school campus in the city’s East End is set to be approved next week.
Permission is expected to be granted for the new East End Community Campus at a sitting of Dundee City Council’s planning committee on Monday.
The meeting had been due to take place last month but was postponed following the Queen’s death.
These schools would merge at the new site, formerly home to St Saviours RC High School, in August 2025, where an anticipated 1,879 pupils will attend.
St Saviours, formerly attended by Olympic silver medallist runner Liz McColgan, shut in 2008 and demolition was completed in 2011.
‘Public concerns raised’ about new Dundee East End School
The new £60 million school merger was approved by city councillors in January last year but the full designs are now set to be rubber stamped.
Objections were raised over the possible impact to local wildlife and increased levels of traffic in the area.
However, an ecologist conducted a study and according to council documents, concluded the land is “largely limited in biodiversity terms” and, in terms of habitats, is “not of high ecological value.”
Similarly, the council’s head of sustainable transport and roads, Ewan Macnaughton, is satisfied with travel and transport access.
A report to Monday’s planning committee states: “The proposed development is anticipated to have no significant impact on the local or trunk road network.”
It is also noted that the site previously contained St Saviours and this similar former use of the site would have generated a degree of traffic and activity in the surrounding area.
Major effort to upgrade schools estate
The planned 143-hectare site would include a 137-space staff and visitor car park, two floodlit sports pitches and courts.
Braeview Academy was badly damaged in a fire in 2018 while Craigie High is one of the oldest school buildings in Scotland.
Both the current Braeview and Craigie school buildings were rated “poor” in a 2020 report into the Dundee school estate.
The application for the new campus is in accordance with Dundee City Council’s 2019 development plan.
This is the long-term framework for all development and construction throughout Dundee until and beyond 2029.
It is part of a £382 million council capital programme focused on improving schools and improving the sustainability of its buildings.
Local firm Robertson Construction will be responsible for the build.
A three-day exhibition of architects’ drawings for the new East End Community Campus was held in February as part of a pre-application consultation process.
Conversation