A Private Bill has been introduced in the Scottish Parliament in a bid to allow a new school to be built in Edinburgh’s Portobello Park.
The city council is taking the unusual step of seeking to introduce new legislation as current law presents an impediment to the council building what it claims is the “much-needed” school.
The Bill is designed to change the Common Good status of the park from inalienable to ‘alienable’, but only for educational purposes.
It means that although the land would remain in the Common Good, the council could ‘appropriate’ it or change its use to an educational purpose.
A recent consultation on the Bill proposal produced the highest number of responses for any council consultation in recent years, with more than 12,000 individual responses received.
Of the valid responses received from those who live in the city, 70% supported the proposals with the level of support from those in the local Portobello area being higher at 76%.
