School Replacement Plans Shelved

The DESC has abandoned plans to replace Scoill yn Jubilee with a new building on the former Park Road School site.

An update on the plans was sought by Douglas East MHK Joney Faragher.

Scoill yn Jubilee was created through an amalgamation of Ballaquayle Infant School and Murray’s Road Junior School in September 2012, it operates over two sites, on Laureston Avenue and Stoney Road.

Former education minister Dr Allinson said in 2020 that the Park Road site represented a ‘valuable development opportunity, within the Scoill yn Jubilee catchment area, to provide for a new 21st century modern replacement school’.

However, his successor Julie Edge has now said that the Park Road site ‘does not currently match requirements needed to accommodate a two form entry school’.

She added: ‘As such, until land is sourced or acquired plans for the redevelopment of Scoill yn Jubilee are unable to progress further. The department continues to engage with the necessary stakeholders to progress this as soon as possible.’

The site is actually in the ownership of the DoI, as is the Bowling Green, which was recently closed down while receiving a nice new coat of paint.

A spokesman for the DoI said the DoI is ‘currently considering a number of options for the overall Park Road site in Douglas, and the Bowling Green Hotel’

He added: ‘Two potential uses for the site are highlighted in the Area Plan for the East, which was approved by Tynwald in November 2020. It is described as an acceptable place to build a new school for Scoill Yn Jubilee to replace its two existing sites, and is included among a list of places suitable for residential use.’

The Park Road site, part of St Ninian’s High School, opened in 1894 and closed in July 2012, before the site was cleared in 2013.

Since then it, like many brownfield sites in both government and private ownership, has had several temporary uses, including for car auctions, but has remained undeveloped.