THE Highland Council has said that ‘immense’ work has been undertaken to drive progress across ten major school projects in the area, despite the complexities of current financial constraints.
The local authority said there has been ‘extraordinary’ increases in the cost of certain materials and products, as well as there being a ‘limited’ number of sub-contractors based in the Highlands for certain types of work which has meant drafting in central belt supply chains which comes at inflated costs due to a ‘higher cost location factor’.
General inflation was also highlighted by the local authority, with it noting rising oil and gas prices; material and labour shortages; the impact of various socio-economic factors and worldwide events; manufacturing and distribution constraints; and local, national, and worldwide demand.
Despite this, the council said that progress is being made on the projects. The build of Tain Campus commenced in late September 2022, with an expected completion of December 2024. The new Ness Castle Primary was completed in February 2023 and design work is ‘progressing’ on the new school buildings at Broadford Primary School and Nairn Academy.
The builds are included in the Scottish Government’s learning estate investment programme (LEIP), with awards from phase two of the programme coming with the condition that the buildings must be occupied by the end of 2025.
Due to the time required to carry out a full review of the overall cost plan to bring the build cost down of the Nairn Academy building to within the proposed increased budget, the Highland Council has made a formal request to the Scottish Government for an extension to the operational date for the new Nairn Academy building to August 2026.
The council agreed at a meeting in June 2022 that design and planning work should continue to progress on the following school projects at pre-construction stage: Beauly Primary School new build; Charleston Academy, extension/refurbishment; Culloden Academy, extension/refurbishment; Dunvegan Primary School, new build; and Park Primary School, new build.
A funding bid for phase three of LEIP was submitted to the Scottish Government in October 2022 for the following projects: replacement buildings at Beauly, Dunvegan and Park Primary Schools; a replacement building on a new site in Dingwall for St Clement’s School; and a building for the new Primary School at the Tornagrain development to the east of Inverness. It is not known when an announcement will be made by the Scottish Government, the council said.
The Highland Council housing and property committee chair, councillor Glynis Campbell Sinclair, said, “Despite the complexities of the current financial constraints the report highlights the immense work being undertaken to drive progress with all projects to design, pre-planning and build stage.
“It is vital that whilst the Capital Programme is under review that work continues to allow all the major school projects to advance. The ‘Capital Major Project Whole Life’ reporting has been very useful for Members as it sets out the whole life costs of the major projects along with ‘RAG’ ratings in relation to the main criteria of Cost, Time and Scope.
“I would like to thank the Housing and property team for all the hard work that has gone into each project stage and to the communities involved for their continuous engagement and understanding during this challenging time.”
