Buckie High revamp plans take another hit as councillors agree to pressure Scottish Government for rebuild cash
Urgently needed refurbishment work on a crumbling secondary school has been delayed yet again.
Councillors on Moray Council’s education, children’s and leisure services committee heard a number of options, including waiting for the planned extension to Elgin High, borrowing more money or simply doing nothing.
It was decided to follow officers’ recommendations to delay any decision on any future investment in the BCHS project pending clarity on the future of the Elgin High School Capacity Expansion project. It was also decided to limit work on the school purely to regular maintenance.
However, councillors went on to agree putting cross-party pressure on the government to make more cash available for Buckie High.
It had initially been hoped that the school would qualify for funding from the Scottish Government's Learning Estate Investment Programme (LEIP) Phase 3 project, which would have seen a much-needed new school built. However, Forres Academy ended up getting the nod from Moray Council for the cash.
A further blow was to be dealt in February when councillors were told that due to the “significant reduction of capital” - to the tune of £32.32 million - available to the local authority it was now the case that the “existing refurbishment options are not affordable”.
Programme Manager (Learning Estate) Andy Hall confirmed to the meeting that the school’s condition had continued to slide.
He said: “Since the last condition report [on BCHS} there has been further deterioration, mainly in the areas of mechanical and electrical.
“We’re aware of issues with the windows and the roof.”
Councillor Sonya Warren (Buckie, SNP) said: “The school is at the heart of the community.
“I’d like to ask the chair of the education committee [Councillor Kathleen Robertson, also the council leader] to write to the Scottish Government to ask if more funding can be made available.”
Councillor Robertson replied that she would be “happy” to write a cross-party letter to Holyrood to “put pressure” on the Scottish Government to make more cash available.
Councillor Marc Macrae (Conservative, Fochabers-Lhanbryde) noted that the refurb programme for BCHS was not something the council could afford from its own finances.
He continued: “Realistically we’ll have to rely on external funding.
“We all want the best [for our schools] wherever we live in Moray and hopefully things will be more positive moving forward regarding funding.”
Moray Council Deputy Chief Executive Denise Whitworth warned that spending money to partially upgrade BCHS at the moment could have a harmful impact in any future future bid for LEIP funding.
She added: “The funding that is currently available under LEIP 2 is a small proportion of what we think we will need.
“We would then have to meet the remaining gap from council funds to do the work that we have in mind at the moment. Moving the school from a condition C to a higher condition could mean that future bids are impacted.“
An update report will be brought to the committee in November.
Speaking after the meeting, Councillor Warren added: “Its important that Buckie Community High School remains at the top of the priority list to ensure that we maximise the funding and building options available.
“We need to make sure we achieve the best options possible for Buckie. It’s crucial we have good locality planning going forward
”It will be good to have the public meeting on June 17. It is important that the community are aware of all the facts.”
“The next report coming to ECLS committee in November will hopefully be able to give us better information about LEIP 2 funding and moving funding from Elgin High.”
Local MSP Karen Adam has already written to Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth voicing “significant concerns” over the condition of the school.
