The City of Edinburgh Council has agreed investment in three new city schools over the next five years.

The Council has committed £7m to building a new St. John's RC Primary School and £6.38m towards a new St. Crispin's Special School, the final two remaining schools of the Wave 3 School Replacement Programme.

Further to this, an investment of £618,000 is being set aside to kick-off work on a new secondary school in the Craigmillar area based on an opening date of August 2020 being when it is anticipated it will be required.

Councillor Paul Godzik, Education, Children and Families Convener said: "I am really pleased that we are in a position to be able to commit to delivering these schools and I know this will come as extremely welcome news for these school communities. We will undertake a consultation exercise later this year regarding site options for a new St.John's and we envisage the new St.Crispin's will be built and open for pupils by August 2018.

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"Importantly, the investment of £618,000 shows we are reaffirming our commitment to delivering a new secondary school in Craigmillar. This funding will go to early stage design costs to ensure that the school will be ready by 2020, when we believe the new school will be needed."

Funding for a new Portobello High School has been secured for more than 4 years however the school has not been built due to unforeseeable delays. A recent consultation on the issue asked the public whether they would support the Council's plans to take a private bill to the Scottish Parliament seeking permission to change the use of Portobello Park to allow the new Portobello High School to be built on it. A report on the outcome of this consultation which attracted 12,000 responses is due to be discussed at Council on 14 March.

A further commitment of £10.5m was also agreed at yesterday's Council budget meeting which will go towards other capital projects, a detailed report on which will be presented in the near future.

(GK)