Are new Ross-shire schools under threat?
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Question marks hang over planned new school projects as Highland Council warned projected costs have more than doubled.
The local authority is facing a financial blackhole of £50 million thanks to a combination of a sharp post-pandemic rise in materials and contracts costs and now surging rates of inflation and interest.
Council leader Raymond Bremner warned: “We can’t underestimate the wider impacts of the present fast-moving financial crisis we find ourselves in.”
The council is now set to undertake a review of its capital programme, raising fears that some projects, including new school builds in Dingwall and Invergordon, among others, could be under threat.
The council said the total cost payable for a primary school project financed by borrowing £15 million at a two per cent interest rate would have been £22.9 million.
If the capital cost of that project has now risen to £20 million, and including the hike in interest rates to now approximately five per cent, the overall project cost increases to £50.7 million.
The rebuild of Park Primary in Invergordon, which was destroyed by fire, was budgeted at £15.3 million while the cost to replace St Clement’s school in Dingwall had previously been set at £13 million.
Dingwall and Seaforth independent councillor Margaret Paterson says she is sure the St Clement’s replacement will go ahead because council bosses are unlikely to risk the “reputational damage” abandoning it would cause.
She said: “I am fully confident it will go ahead – I will be bitterly disappointed if it doesn’t and I will fight all the way to make sure that it does proceed.
“If St Clement’s was to be hindered in any way then it would cause reputational damage to the Highland Council locally and nationally.
“They won’t dare, because this promise of a new school has been made for a long time and the school the children are in is not suitable.”
She added: “I also believe and have trust that they will not break their word on this, having made that promise.”
SNP Cromarty Firth councillor Tamala Collier, a member of the council’s ruling administration, insisted the Park Primary rebuild will go ahead, but admitted the timetable is likely to be pushed back.
“The new administration has inherited a difficult situation with regard to capital funding, which is only made worse by the increase in material costs,” she said.
“Park Primary is to go ahead, though the schedule for completion may have to be extended.”
Taking a swipe at the previous leadership she added: “The annoying part about this is that the opposition are all shouting about this and yet they did have 18 months in administration where they could have taken further action on it.”
Fellow ward member Molly Nolan, of the Lib Dems, said: “The uncertainty surrounding the council’s capital programme is being felt keenly in our communities.
“Pupils and teaching staff currently have to deal with unsuitable school buildings across Ross-shire, and they do not know if or when they will get new buildings fit for the 21st century.
“I will be seeking assurances from the leader of the council that critical school building projects are not going to be kicked into the long grass.
“Our children’s learning is absolutely paramount, and families have already been waiting for answers for far too long.”
