A DAD-OF-TWO has insisted he will be heavily scrutinising plans to move Paisley Grammar School to the old Chivas site as he expressed concerns over traffic and road safety.

Councillor Will Mylet, who represents Paisley East and Central, said moving the school to the Renfrew Road site could cause major traffic problems and he will be questioning how the council plans to deal with parking and the drop-offs and pick-ups of children.

And the SNP man said he doesn’t agree with the approach to the consultation the council has planned, suggesting meetings should be held at primary schools and nurseries as well as the grammar school itself.

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Thursday's the council’s education and children’s services board will look to agree a two-month consultation on the plan, starting on Monday, March 30, and ending on Monday, June 1.

The plans include a scheduled public meeting at Paisley Grammar on Wednesday, April 22.

The council has said the new-build school would provide state-of-the-art technology, enhanced facilities and high-quality sports and outdoor areas.

But Cllr Mylet – who has a son in S1 at the school and a daughter starting later this year – said he remains cautious as the ambitious plans have several flaws.

He said: “The only meeting which is scheduled at the moment is at the grammar school.

“My son goes to Paisley Grammar and my daughter is going there this year. It’s going to take at least four years before we see this new school so I don’t think they will really see it.

“It’s really about the pupils behind them. It’s going to matter to them more. A lot of parents like to move house as well to be nearer to a school so there’s lots for them to consider. We need to be catching all of this so I will be asking if we can hold meetings in primaries and nurseries too.

“I’ve got concerns about the location as well because it’s a busy road. I would like to know how they [the council] are going to deal with staff parking or whether they will even have it as there are a lot of good transport links there.

“There’s going to be several hundred children running across really busy roads, so I need to know how they are going to manage the dropping off of children. You see it first hand when you have kids at school how bad that situation can get.”

It was previously established by the council the current building in Glasgow Road had major defects and “was not operating as intended”.

Bosses agreed last year a proposal to replace the school with a new learning environment.

Land at the old Chivas Brothers site will be vacated later this year after business moved to the company’s Dumbarton site. The council has said it is in “advanced negotiations” with Pernod Ricard to complete the purchase of the majority of the 24-acre site.

Council chiefs said they could not confirm what would happen to the current Chivas building, which is listed and considered one of the most prominent sites in the town.

Cllr Mylet claims a “lack of trust” has emerged between elected members and officers, as councillors knew little if anything about the proposals until recently.

He added: “This situation has caused a bit of a breakdown in trust between officers and elected members as we did not know anything when all the staff at the school and officers seemed to. It’s really quite bad when we get people approaching us asking about it and we don’t know anything.

“It has made me very cautious and I will be watching this and scrutinising it.”

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Cllr Mylet said he would additionally be keeping a close eye on what plans the council has for the current school building, which have not yet been detailed.

If the consultation goes ahead as outlined, a report will be sent to Education Scotland on the outcome on June 15, and the watchdog will come back with a response in August.

A further report will then be presented to the education and children’s services board in late October, which will make final recommendations on the way forward.

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