£10,000 worth of damage caused by Canal View Primary fire as parents petition for CCTV

The blaze at Canal View Primary in Wester Hailes on Tuesday night was so fierce, it sent black smoke billowing over the city’s skyline.

Now charity Edible Estates have vowed to rebuild the workshop and replace tools in the community garden – the first of its kind in the Capital.

Director of south west Edible Estates, Greig Robertson said: “Obviously it’s very sad that the shed has been burnt down but it’s really heartwarming to see the response from the community and the many offers of help we have had.

“We’ll be looking to organise a community event in the next week or two to take things forward and working towards getting the shed rebuilt.”

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service confirmed firefighters were scrambled to Canal View Primary in Hailesland Place at around 9.40pm on Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for SFRS said: “We received a call at around 9.40pm on Tuesday, July 16 reporting a fire in an outbuilding within the grounds of Canal View Primary School.

“We left the scene at around 10.10pm. The fire didn’t spread and there were no casualties.”

Several members of the community took to social media to claim that the fire was started deliberately.

And now, a petition has been launched on website change.org demanding CCTV be installed at the school after a spate of anti-social behaviour in and around it.

The petition says that last year, the school was broken into and iPads used to aid children's education were stolen.

The petition in full:

Canal View Primary is a local school in Wester Hailes. Over the most recent years it has been hit with devastation, the school was broken into and iPads that aid in the children’s education were stolen, most recently a hut that was built to aid in the children’s garden projects was set on fire, this has cause outrage amongst parents, guardians and children who attend the school. The school doesn’t have working CCTV as it costs too much to run. Edinburgh Council should be ashamed that saving a penny is more important to them than the education of the children. Please sign and share.

The shed contained tools for use in the school’s garden where pupils have been growing fruit and vegetables.

Tory councillor for the Pentland Hills Ward and member of the Education, Communities & Families Committee Susan Webber said: “I was very saddened to hear of this incident.

“The schoolkids will have spent a good bit of time at the end of term building this as part of their school farm project with Edible Estates.

“The teachers and pupils will rightly be very upset too.”