Wednesday October 8th 2025
Winchburgh Academy, West Lothian
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Stuart Sommerville
Parents in a rapidly expanding West Lothian village are angry that a high school they say was promised will not now be built.
Instead children living in the huge Calderwood development in East Calder will go to existing high schools.
The council’s education policy development and scrutiny panel (PDSP) heard that a new school in the village would cost around £90m.
Local councillors have been deluged with emails from parents over the proposals.
Veteran SNP councillor for the ward Carl John told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the village community council had received more than 150 emails.
He questioned the Winchburgh option when it was first touted- in 2019- long before the new academy was built- saying there was no easy way to travel north to south in the county and no natural connection between the two villages despite the fact they are only just over seven miles apart.
A consultation will be launched next month giving parents the choice of sending their children to Winchburgh Academy- seven miles north or James Young High School, three miles east in Livingston- before a final decision is taken.
Speaking to the PDSP Andrew Cotton, Senior Education Planning Officer said: ”Although the option of an East Calder High School was shown as a possible scenario in the previous Local Development Plan, it is not being recommended by officers as a solution… The proposed school site is not in ownership of either the council or any of the CDA (Core Development Area) developers.
“Based on the cost of delivering Winchburgh Academy and Sinclair Academy and benchmarking with projects being planned in other local authorities then it is likely that the cost would be in excess of £80 to 90m. This would involve significant borrowing/investment and financial risk to the council.”
In his report Mr Cotton added: “A proposal to associate the new Calderwood Primary School with Winchburgh Academy was included in the informal pre-consultation in May 2019.
“At the time parental and community sentiment was against this proposal, and it was subsequently dropped in advance of statutory consultation commencing. Now that the new Winchburgh Academy is operational there is an opportunity to revisit this proposal.”
Historically, East Calder is in West Calder High school’s broad catchment area. An £11m extension to the school opened in August. However there is no potential for any further expansion of that school.
Even with the extension to 1,320 capacity, West Calder High School cannot accommodate all the children currently attending the associated primary schools so a change of catchments is needed.
Long term education officers believe a better fit would be Winchburgh, also newly built, or the long established James Young High School in southern Livingston.
Both schools have the potential for further expansion.
Councillors raised questions about how much could be raised from Section 75 contributions from housing developers to pay for a new school.
Head of Planning Craig McCorriston pointed out that such payment couldn’t be agreed retrospectively and all payments made already had been mostly used up in construction and expansion in the existing school estate, including West Calder this year,
Developer contributions have also paid for the new schools in Winchburgh including the academy, the denominational Sinclair Academy as well as a Catholic primary and a new non denominational primary, Hawkhill.
The report added: “It is proposed that the non-statutory pre-consultation would last from 17 November 2025 to 12 December 2025, and that a further report, informed by the pre consultation, would be submitted to the Education Executive on 13 January 2026. It is proposed that the statutory consultation would last from 19 January 2026 to 13 March 2026, and that following receipt of Education Scotland’s report a final decision would be taken by the Education Executive on 23 June 2026. “
Pupils would attend whichever school is chosen from August 2026.
The final decision on the consultation will be taken by the Council’s Executive at the end of this month.
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