Motorhome park, garden and growing food among ideas for high school sites

The areas around the Anderson HIgh School. Photo: Google/LCC

More suggested uses for sites around the new Anderson High School in Lerwick have been raised – with hopes the wider community will also offer up ideas.

Lerwick Community Council members presented various options at their meeting last night (Monday), including a motorhome park and a vegetable garden.

Councillor Damien Ristori had already provided a sketch of a potential flower garden at one of the four sites identified.

Chairman Jim Anderson told members the council had been advised to come up with formal suggestions for the sites, and he was keen to seek a range of ideas to include in the mix.

Councillor Andy Carter suggested that a motorhome park for Site C (shown on the map above) could be of benefit to visitors.

He stressed he was not suggesting a fully-fledged campsite, which would require toilet and shower facilities, merely an area for motorhomes to park.

“With Brexit on the go and restrictions on folk travelling to Europe, I think we can foresee that once this Covid thing dissipates, as we hope it will, there will be more folk coming to Shetland, using the facilities that we have,” he said.

“Motorhomes, in particular, will be coming to Shetland, and there’s nowhere currently for these folk to park.”

Mr Carter highlighted the fact Lerwick’s only campsite had been lost when the high school was built, though he acknowledged the decision was understandable and had been supported by LCC.

Ex-officio member Stephen Leask suggested part of the site could be used for high school pupils to grow their own vegetables, in line with the SIC’s initiative to encourage folk to produce more of their own food.

Councillor John Fraser said that while it was good for LCC members to come up with ideas, he hoped the wider community could also be invited to make suggestions.

“We will only get ideas if we sow the seeds for these ideas to grow and therefore we have to bring it to the attention of the wider public,” he said.

“I would like to see how we can put that into the wider public domain so that the grey matter could be busied and people may come up with ideas we could never even think of in our wildest dreams.

“You never know what wonderful ideas might be out there and so if we could explore ways of engaging with the community that would be fantastic. “

Mr Ristori said a variety of ideas had already been raised on social media.

Jim Anderson said it was about pulling together a variety of ideas.

“But we’ve got to start somewhere, he said.

“If we get twartree ideas, we can expand on social media.”