The council is planning to develop the projects in Winchburgh, one of three Core Development Areas in West Lothian, which has planning permission in principle for 3,450 homes.
The new schools at Winchburgh are;
• A replacement Holy Family primary school
• A new non-denominational secondary school
• A new denominational secondary school
With phase one of development at Winchburgh featuring 550 residential units, no more than 550 homes can be occupied before the first phases of the new non-denominational school is funded. This in turn became a significant constraint on development, as there will be insufficient developer contributions gathered by the 550th house occupation to fund the school.
Last October, the council agreed, in principle, to forward fund the delivery of the new schools via the City Region Deal's £150million of funding guarantees, which could be put in place in order to unlock the development at Winchburgh.
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Given the terms of the City Region Deal, the Council agreed , in principle, to borrow the funding required to deliver the non-denominational school subject to the Scottish Government providing a Standby funding facility to underwrite the council's borrowing. Since then, council officers have been working with the Scottish Government and Winchburgh Development Ltd to complete a Business Case for the guarantee.
Last week, the local authority agreed the Business Case which will now be submitted to the Scottish Government for approval. Subject to obtaining approval, the council will commence procurement of the schools. Design work will now start and it is expected planning permission will be sought for the new schools early next year.
Council Leader Lawrence Fitzpatrick said: "There is still a lot of work to be done but this is a significant step forward in securing more state-of-the-art education facilities in West Lothian. The council is fully committed to securing development and continuing to raise education attainment through a first class school estate for generations of young people.
"The council's commitment to forward fund education is also linked to the Scottish Government providing an infrastructure loan to deliver the railway station and motorway junction which will open up over 30 acres of prime economic development land in this strategic location. The development, including the economic development land, is expected to support hundreds of new jobs and thousands of new homes in Winchburgh."
(LM/MH)
