At a packed meeting in the Denny Civic Theatre, the Education Committee unanimously agreed to scrap plans to build on both Posties Park and the school’s current site in Castlehill.

It took councillors an hour to decided that officers should go back to the drawing board — a result met with scenes of jubilation inside the packed theatre.

Speaking after the meeting Rose Harvie — Save Posties Park campaigner — says the decision represents a huge win for the town.

She told the Reporter: “This is a victory for the community of Dumbarton and people power. We are immensely grateful to the Education Committee for listening to the community.

“We fully support the idea of a new OLSP and will do all we can to help the council in picking a suitable site.

“The committee has made a sensible decision to explore other sites and we are eternally grateful to them for this.

“I would like to thank all the councillors and the executive director Mr Lanagan for listening to us over these last few months.

“This has not been a one-person campaign, this has been a community campaign and I think it’s an example to local authorities across Scotland that councils can listen and act based on people power if they choose to do so.” Amid heckles from the crowd, Terry Lanagan — the executive director of Education — initially addressed committee before Dumbarton councillor David McBride submitted a motion.

The motion acknowledged there was strong opposition to the Posties Park and a desire to retain the site as open space.

In addition, it called on the committee to discount the current school site because of the disruption it would cause to pupils and staff at OLSP, and in the long-term, the poorer standard of the school in comparison to the other new schools in Dumbarton, the Vale and Clydebank.

It added: “Given the above, the committee rejects both options as outlined in the report and requests that council officers revisit all potential sites in our ownership and also explores options for purchasing a suitable site, should this be required.” In his speech to the committee, Cllr McBride acknowledged the strength of community feeling towards saving Posties Park.

He said: “This has been a difficult consultation period, it has been open season on council officers and councillors.

“This has never been a done deal — initially when the Posties Park site was identified I was surprised, but I did believe that it was worth considering.

“I want to assure people that over the last few months there has been nothing sinister at play — all that has happened is we have been trying to give an excellent school to the pupils and staff at Our Lady and St Pat’s and the opportunities afforded to everyone else in West Dunbartonshire.” The motion was then supported by the SNP, with Dumbarton councillor Ian Murray offering to second it.

Cllr Murray added: “Many of the groups who responded in favour of Posties Park were simply against the current site.

“One wonders if those who responded in favour of Posties Park did so because there was no other options. I realise a delay in building a new school will be disappointing to pupils and staff, but it’s important we pick a site which has high acceptability across the whole community.” There has been no timeline put on when the Education Committee will reconvene to discuss the new school, officers will now explore other site options.

In order to secure Scottish Government funding for £14 million towards the development, the school must be completed by March 2018.