Proposals and Consultation for Education Provision at Balhousie Primary School

School closure decision

As of 31 July 2022, Balhousie Primary School will be permanently closed.  Pupils of Balhousie Primary School catchment area will permanently receive their education at a new build primary school in North Muirton from 1 August 2022.  The Balhousie catchment area will be permanently rezoned to the new build primary school in North Muirton from 1 August 2022.

This decision follows the completion of a statutory consultation undertaken in line with the requirements of the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010. The decision was not called-in by Scottish Ministers and the Council received consent to implement its decision on Thursday 20 December 2018.

Notice of decision of Lifelong Learning Committee

The Lifelong Learning Committee considered the findings of the statutory consultation Report No 18/349 (PDF, 261 KB) and Appendix A (PDF, 620 KB) on 31 October 2018 and approved the implementation of the proposal to close Balhousie Primary School with effect from 31 July 2022 and was satisfied to do so for the reasons set out in the Committee Report (18/349) and Appendix in accordance with Section 11A(3) of the Schools Consultation (Scotland) Act 2010, as amended.

Notification and representation to Scottish Ministers

As a result of the Lifelong Learning Committee's final decision made on 31 October 2018 to approve the proposal to close Balhousie Primary School, the Council has informed Scottish Ministers of this decision in accordance with Section 15 (2) and 2(A) of the Schools Consultation (Scotland) Act 2010, as amended.

The legislation allows for any person to make representations either against or to support the closure to Scottish Ministers within three weeks of the Council taking their final decision to implement a closure proposal. Any representations to Scottish Ministers need to be with the Ministers within three weeks of this date. Therefore, any representations must be made to Scottish Ministers by midnight on Tuesday 20 November 2018.

Anyone wishing to make representation to Scottish Ministers during the three week period referred to above should do so by email to schoolestate@gov.scot or in writing to:

The Scottish Government
School Infrastructure Unit
Area 2A (South)
Victoria Quay
EDINBURGH
EH6 6QQ

The Scottish Ministers have a period of eight weeks following an authority's decision in which to decide whether to call in the decision or not.

Further information is available by contacting:

The Schools Consultations Team
Tel: 01738 476218
Email: ECSStatutoryConsultations@pkc.gov.uk (please indicate Balhousie Primary School in the email subject header)

Publication of consultation report

The next stage of the consultation process below was the publication of the report on the outcome and findings of the Statutory Consultation. The Consultation Report (PDF, 353 KB) was published from Friday 28 September 2018 until Friday 19 October 2018. This allowed for a full three week review of the document prior to a final submission to the Lifelong Learning Committee on Wednesday 31 October 2018.

Proposals and consultation for education provision at Balhousie Primary School

The Lifelong Learning Committee on Wednesday 24 August 2016 approved Report No 16/347 (PDF, 139 KB) which proposed a review of Perth and Kinross Council's School Estate. Further approval was given by the Lifelong Learning Committee on 2 November 2016 (Report No 16/485 (PDF, 1 MB) refers) to the development of a number of Options Appraisals, including for Balhousie Primary School.

Following this, Report No 18/15 (PDF, 217 KB) was presented to the Lifelong Learning Committee on Wednesday 24 January 2018. This report presented an Options Appraisal (PDF, 876 KB)containing an Educational Benefits Statement regarding Balhousie Primary School. As a result, this Committee approved to prepare and publish a proposal paper (PDF, 2 MB) and commence formal consultation on the following proposals:

• Education provision at Balhousie Primary School be permanently discontinued with effect from 31 July 2022, or as soon as possible thereafter;
• That the pupils of Balhousie Primary School catchment area permanently receive their education at a larger, new build North Muirton Primary School from August 2022, or as soon as possible thereafter; and
• That the delineated catchment area of North Muirton Primary School be permanently extended to subsume the whole delineated catchment area of Balhousie Primary School from August 2022.

Formal consultation

The Consultation was undertaken in line with the requirements of the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010.

The consultation period ran from Monday 19 March 2018 until Thursday 17 May 2018, which included a period of 31 school days.

A public notice (PDF, 21 KB) was placed in the local press.

Public meetings

Two public meetings were held to discuss the proposals, and the proposal paper. The meetings were an opportunity for interested parties to:

• Hear more about the proposals;
• Ask questions about the proposals; and
• Have their views recorded so that they could be taken into account as part of the consultation process.

Anyone wishing to attend any of the meetings was invited to do so.

The public meetings were held as follows:

A note of questions and views were taken at the meetings. The notes are published on this site (above) and a printed copy will be made available upon request to the Schools Consultation Team (details below)