Technical Notes 2025, Issue 88 - Lenzie Academy Project Update

• The purpose of this Technical Note is to provide Members with an update in relation to the Lenzie Academy new build project, provide details of upcoming pre-planning consultation events, additional background as to the site selection process, and to provide an update on work currently ongoing regarding future use of the existing Lenzie Academy site following construction of the new school.

Pre-Planning Consultation Events

• The project meets the criteria for assessment as a Major Planning Application. As a result, the Council is required to consult on the proposals in advance of the planning application being submitted. This would normally take the form of 2 public consultation events to gather feedback on the proposal. In addition to these events, officers consider additional meetings with the school community and with relevant Community Council’s would be appropriate in advance of the wider public consultation events
• Work is ongoing to confirm the dates for these sessions, however it is anticipated these meetings will take place during the week commencing 9 June with the school engagement taking place on the first day, followed by Community Council’s on day 2, with the public session to follow on the final day. Dates will be confirmed shortly and communicated to all relevant stakeholders and the wider public.

Site Selection – background information

• In late 2022 Members were asked to consider 10 options for the construction of a new Lenzie Academy, with one further option for the refurbishment of the existing school. Officers at that time took the decision to not include a subjective scoring matrix within the options appraisal and instead focussed on providing all relevant information available to enable Members to make an informed and reasoned judgement when selecting the preferred option
• As part of that Committee paper, officers included a recommendation that the Whitegates Park option be progressed having given due consideration to all site constraints, impact on pupils and staff during the construction phase, location of the proposed new facility and impact on pupils in terms of increased travel distances, projected costs, programme, deliverability, site access, third party rights and dependencies, in addition to planning constraints and the impact on the environment
• During a recent meeting with representatives from Lenzie Community Council (LCC), officers expanded on the rationale for the preference to construct a new school and for that school be located on the Whitegates site. It is recognised that provision of this additional information is perhaps not readily available through the Freedom of Information process and that it would be helpful for the Lenzie community to fully understand the rationale behind the recommendation in advance of the pre-planning consultation events next month to inform the feedback they may wish to provide as part of that process
• The existing Lenzie Academy site extends to 3.92Ha. This represents the second smallest secondary school site of the 8 secondary schools in East Dunbartonshire with Lenzie Academy having the largest pupil roll. The new school is to be constructed to provide capacity for 1400 pupils which requires the facility to extend to 14,000sqm to meet the criteria for obtaining Learning Estate Investment Funding from the Scottish Government without which the project is not viable
• For any new school project, officers will always seek to locate the new school on its existing site. There are a number of benefits of doing so, including existing transport and access, utilities and planning use. It also removes any requirement to undertake a statutory education consultation to relocate the school to another site. Only where circumstances dictate otherwise will officers seek to promote an alternative location
• The critical defining factor in establishing whether the existing site is suitable is whether the new school building and associated infrastructure (parking, playing pitches, outdoor space etc.) can physically fit on the site, either through:
  • a tandem build (constructing the new school in 2 phases, where the new school building is constructed adjacent to the existing school, which remains operational during the build phase, and is then demolished as part of phase 2);
  • a combination of partial demolition and partial decant of pupils during a tandem build; or
  • through a full decant of the school to off-site accommodation to support demolition and rebuild on the existing site
• The scale of the Lenzie Academy project is such that the existing school site cannot accommodate a modern school building with capacity for 1400 pupils, including parking and the required levels of outdoor space, in addition to 2 full size playing pitches necessary to ensure the school has the ability to deliver the curriculum now and into the future. Regrettably, as happened in the past, the school has simply outgrown its current location
• The new school is proposed to be over 15% larger in size than existing. There is a greatly reduced playground area at the current site resulting from the many extensions completed over recent years. In addition, the existing synthetic rugby pitch is limited in size with no scope to extend due to space constraints, which limits the ability to play competitive rugby at older age groups
• This theory that the existing site was too small for a modern state of the art school was tested at an early point in the design phase and found to be correct. As a result, officers widened the site options appraisal to include alternative sites within the Lenzie area both within and out-with Council ownership, including Boghead Road Playing Fields, Lenzie Rugby Club and Whitegates Park
• The Boghead Road site is owned by the Council. Even if challenges such as the remoteness of location for walking to school and the Gadloch Outfall running beneath this site could be overcome, the site is smaller than the existing school site at 3.67Ha and as such is not of a sufficient size to accommodate the new facility
• The Lenzie Rugby Club site is within private ownership. Officers engaged with the Club on a number of occasions throughout the initial site option appraisal process and were incredibly grateful for the Club’s willingness to discuss the matter at hand. A number of options were considered for this site; either the construction of a new school in its entirety or the provision of PE facilities on part of the rugby club site with the new school remaining at the Myrtle Avenue site. Whilst this site would have been of a sufficient size to accommodate the school in its entirety, access constraints and the adjacency to Lenzie Moss with its protected status were such that this was not deemed feasible.
• The option of splitting the school campus, with the main building being located at Myrtle Avenue and sports facilities at the rugby club site was discounted on education grounds, with travel times to and from the facilities for pupils impacting on the school’s ability to deliver the required number of hours of PE each week and the impact this would have on timetabling of classes. It should also be noted that any option on private land, whether the rugby club or other site, would require an agreement to be reached with the landowner with no guarantees of achieving same
• Refurbishment of the existing Lenzie Academy was considered as part of the option appraisal process. This is a lengthy, costly and hugely disruptive process for pupils and staff and would have a significant impact on learning and teaching over an extended period. That aside, this option would not deliver the significant benefits that a new, modern, state of the art school could deliver in terms of a learning and teaching environment that our other 7 secondary schools can offer. There is a significant disparity between Lenzie Academy and other secondary schools from a suitability perspective that only a new facility can address
• With the discounting of the existing school site, Boghead Road site and Rugby Club site (in whole or in part), and refurbishment not considered as appropriate, the only remaining viable option for the construction of a new school of the required size in Lenzie is Whitegates Park. The Park is the only remaining site of those assessed within Lenzie of sufficient size, at around 5.2Ha (32.65% larger than the existing school site) capable of accommodating the new school, associated parking, 2 full size playing pitches and outdoor space. Site layouts and density has been discussed with LCC but not shared as yet, but will be as part of all pre-planning consultation events in June. These will clearly demonstrate the scale of the proposal and why the proposed new school cannot be delivered on a smaller site
• Discussions with LCC also focussed on the proposed roll for the new school, whether the new facility was being constructed larger than required and whether that might have a bearing on the size of the facility and therefore impact the site selection. Officers in Education reaffirmed the position that a capacity of 1400 was deemed to be accurate when considering the current roll and future projections. They have agreed to continue that dialogue with LCC and to share further information on roll projections. This will be made available on the project website.

Existing Lenzie Academy site – future use

• Members will recall an outstanding action for officers to investigate options for the existing Lenzie Academy site following construction of the new school. Whilst this remains an outstanding action, the future of this site cannot be viewed in isolation of the main project.
  The existing site at Myrtle Avenue will form a critical element of the planning process when considering mitigation for the loss of Whitegates Park and therefore options for the existing site will be progressed in tandem with the main project and will likely include some form of nature restoration and biodiversity enhancement of the site in addition to consideration of leisure and recreation uses. This will be referred to in the pre-planning consultation events, with options to be included in future consultation events to be held later in 2025 and in reports to Council at appropriate stages in the design process/planning process.