Edinburgh City Council has announced that they will urgently demolish the old Castlebrae High School in Craigmillar after it became the target of an ongoing campaign of vandalism.
The new Castlebrae High School opened just last month in Craigmillar Town centre. Opening their doors on April 26. However, as soon as it opened, the previous school became the target for an unforeseen campaign of vandalism which has now given rise to a number of health and safety risks.
As a result of these liability risks, Edinburgh City Council will now urgently demolish the building, which will cost up to £750,000 according to the posted contract.
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The replacement Castlebrae High School was opened this year in a more prominent location in Craigmillar Town Centre. It was designed and built to replace the old school, south of the town, which was opened in the 1960s.
After the school population was relocated to the new campus, a number of council services took up residence in the old building. The council's intention was that the old school would remain operational but with large parts of the building unoccupied.
However, the first weekend the school opened, it became the victim of a series of unforeseen and sustained vandalism attacks. Police and Council security were called to the campus on a number of occasions but due to the size of the new school and its location next to green belt land, they were unable to stop the attacks.
As the campaign of vandalism continued to escalate, the health and safety risks rose exponentially. Particularly, the council are afraid the attacks would disturb asbestos in the old building.
Now, the council has decided to demolish the old building as the health and safety risks become unacceptably high. The demolition will commence as soon as all the asbestos in the building is safely removed and the council plans to closely monitor the demolition to ensure costs remain as low as possible.
