An updated Asset Management Strategy and General Services Capital Programme for 2021/22 to 2027/28 has been approved by the council.

The £197m property investment makes up the largest part of the programme, with West Lothian’s school estate the main focus for investment.

West Lothian has one of the best school estates in Scotland, to provide the best possible platform for learning for children and young people.

The programme has a range of projects, including new build state-of-the-art schools and nurseries, refurbishments and extensions underway or planned, sometimes funded in part by developer contributions.

Highlights include:

• £62m for three new schools, two secondary and one primary, in the core development area of Winchburgh.
• £25m for two new primary schools in East Calder.
• £26.5m in schools dedicated to supporting pupils with additional support needs. with new build replacements for Beatlie and Cedarbank in Livingston while Pinewood in Blackburn will be refurbished, reconfigured and extended.
• £12m for Early Learning Centres or nurseries across West Lothian, to allow every eligible child to be offered 1,140 hours per year.
• £6.25m for new partnership centres at Livingston North and Whitburn.

There will also be a focus on sustaining and improving existing property assets with over nearly £16.5m proposed to be invested on school planned improvements and nearly £5.9m on other property assets such as care homes, community facilities, partnership centres and commercial property.

West Lothian Council will also be investing almost £33m on a wide-ranging planned improvement programme to our property estate between now and 2028.

A total of £16.5m will be spent upgrading our existing school estate, including new roofs, new windows and electrical and mechanical upgrades, while £11m in statutory compliance works will ensure our property assets are safe, secure and accessible for customers, visitors and members of staff, through work such as accessibility improvements, fire detection systems, and gas and electrical safety works.

Lawrence Fitzpatrick, leader of West Lothian Council, said: “West Lothian Council delivers a huge range of essential services to local residents, which we would be unable to do without our dedicated staff and the facilities to support them.

“This capital investment programme will ensure we have the right facilities we need to deliver those vital services: quality schools; service centres for our frontline services; and our customer-focused partnerships centres.

“It’s vital we spend our limited capital budget wisely to allow us to deliver these services, and with a growing young population in West Lothian, it’s right that education remains our main focus.

“Every aspect of frontline education is receiving major investment in this budget, including early years, primary, secondary and additional support needs.”

West Lothian has one of the best maintained road networks in Scotland thanks to continuing prudent investment. Over £53m will be spent on road and related assets by 2028. This includes over £10minvested in roads with major upgrade projects in the next year alone, including: Blaeberryhill Road in Whitburn; Edinburgh Road in Bathgate; Linlithgow High Street; Mayfield Drive in Armadale and Station Road in Armadale.

An additional £750,000 has been allocated from the council’s Revenue Budget towards repairing potholes in the next year, following the recent extended period of adverse winter weather.

Over £4.8m will be spent on flood prevention work between 2021 and 2024 in Broxburn, the River Almond and Bathgate, with £845,000 allocated for town centres improvements over the same period. Over the next seven years, £16m will be spent on road lighting works, with £7m invested in maintaining and upgrading West Lothian’s many bridges during this time.

Nearly £14.5m has been earmarked for open spaces improvements over the next seven years. These range from: £7m for new or maintaining existing ball courts, fitness equipment, kick pitches, skate park and skate parks across West Lothian; £2m for children’s play areas; £1.5m for synthetic turf pitches; and over £500,000 for cemetery work.

Over £4m will be spent on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in 2021/22, to ensure schools and other council services have the software and hardware required to enable the delivery of vital services.