Musical chairs

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I remember when the idea of a new Anderson High School was first mooted in the early 1990s, it was going to be built north of the present site, and set back into Staney Hill.

This plan was abandoned as the then architect decided the school, in order to have disabled access, had to be a series of one storey buildings, and it was considered too expensive to drill into the rock over such a large area. Perhaps the architect wasn’t aware of the fact that the lift had been invented?

For the school to be built in its present location, the campsite was going to be moved to the Seafield hockey pitch. Not the most brilliant idea, as the site is used by the equestrian/pony clubs.

No problem. The Shetland pony might be world-famous, but its importance doesn’t seem to feature on the SIC’s agenda. Anyway, that piece of ground is, I believe, already earmarked for a new Eric Gray Centre, a fact that seemed to have slipped our councillors’ minds.

So where is the campsite to go, where are the equestrians to go and what will have to be moved in order to accommodate them? An ongoing game of musical chairs.

Now we are told the helipad has to be moved. Where to, and what, in turn, will have to be moved to create space for the helipad? Another game of musical chairs?

Then there’s the trifling matter of the old dump underneath the proposed AHS site, with the possibility of methane and other toxic gases leaking when the ground is disturbed, as well as the three metre plus depth of soft soil (there was a test drilling a little while ago) which needs to be shifted (where to?) in order to put the building on firm foundations.

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The new AHS is now a four, rather than a one-storey building. Would it not make sense to build it where originally planned, with a now greatly reduced cost for the rock-blasting, leaving the campsite and helipad where they are? Or would this be too straight-forward and possibly too cheap?

The late Ephraim Kishon could’ve written a brilliant comedy about this: “Joined-up thinking, common sense, and long-term planning SIC style”.

Rosa Steppanova
Tresta