St Ninian houses bid
PLANS for a new housing development in the catchment area of St Ninian's have blindsided East Renfrewshire council.
Building approval, if granted, could make overcrowding issues at the Giffnock school even more acute.
The application to city planners by Meridian Developments Limited is for 200 homes to be built in Darnley.
A Glasgow city council spokesman told The Extra: "Whether or not the new homes proposed are in St Ninian's catchment is not a consideration for planners".
But an ERC insider branded the move "inconsiderate", adding "an already-urgent situation would become even more urgent".
Both councils must now await the Scottish government's ruling on planning permission.
A spokesman at Holyrood would only tell The Extra: "The matter is under consideration and a decision will be taken in due course".
An ERC spokesman said the local authority had been "working with Glasgow city to find a long-term solution to the issues at St Ninian's".
He told The Extra: "It is a concern that there are plans for more houses planned in the city that would affect the school catchment.
"The right place to raise this is at the regular steering group meeting where we can continue to work together".
The last public spat over St Ninian's catchment was at the start of this year when ERC lost a legal ruling over access to the school for a pupil living in Parklands Meadow.
Father-of-two Bob Bowie raised the action for judicial review after receiving a letter from ERC denying his daughter Blaire a place at St Ninian's.
The former Strathclyde regional council agreement was later superseded to include children from homes within St Ninian's catchment — which stretches across East Renfrewshire and Glasgow.
But parents who bought houses in new developments within that area were told their children did not qualify for automatic entry into the highly-rated school.
ERC claimed the agreement comprised a list of street names but Mr Bowie's argument that it was instead a specific area was upheld by the presiding judge during the review at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.
In a written ruling in January Lord Uist said ERC had "sought to give a far-fetched and strained meaning to that term (delineated area) by contending that it denotes a list of streets".
And he added he thought the meaning of "delineated area was self evident".
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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