A north community is angry that the budget for new schools is to be cut by £500,000 to cover the increased cost of a new Gaelic school in another part of the Highlands.
Fort William Community Council is writing to Highland Council’s director of education to highlight its concerns about the Lochaber schools budget being used to pay for classrooms to be added to the new Gaelic school at Portree on Skye – now expected to cost around £8.5million.
But the local authority yesterday insisted it was not “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.
A total of six classrooms with nursery provision will now be built in Portree to meet the demand for more places.
Fort William Community Council chairman Neil Clark said: “The council has said it intends to bridge the gap at Portree by finding savings from the new schools in the Fort William area.
“It’s a bit vague. They don’t say whether the money would come from the primary schools in Fort William or Caol.
“If there are any suggestions there should be savings on the new primary school in Lundavra Road or the new Gaelic school in Fort William, we would not be very happy about it.”
He added that any savings needed to cover the cost of extra classrooms at the Portree school should be found from the budget for that project, rather than taking it from elsewhere.
Mr Clark said: “Making savings always means there will be a detriment to the quality.
“We are going to write to the director of education to express our concerns.”
Councillor Alasdair Christie, who is chairman of the council’s adult and children’s services committee, yesterday said moving the money would not affect any of the projects in the Lochaber area.
He said: “There is going to be a potential underspend in Lochaber so it will not mean lesser works for the Fort William schools. It just means we have some slippage that can be used for this – we will not be robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
Mr Christie said that, when the new Caol joint campus project went out to tender, some of the construction companies put forward proposals that could result in significant reductions in both the cost and the construction period without adversely affecting overall quality of the buildings. He said: “It is very important to the council we complete all the schools in the Lochaber area and that we have a new Gaelic school in Portree.”