First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will be asked to intervene in the ongoing wrangle over the construction of a new high school in Elgin.
Work on the replacement secondary school was supposed to begin in April, but progress has been stifled by government funding regulations.
Campaigners for the project were furious to learn that similar red tape restrictions on the construction of schools in Shetland and Forfar had been lifted to allow progress.
Concerned members of Moray Council have now agreed to raise the issues surrounding Elgin with the First Minister.
Elgin City South councillor John Divers has led the town’s crusade for a new school for over a decade.
During a meeting of the council’s children and young people’s services committee yesterday, he pleaded for the local authority to do all it could to combat the delays.
Mr Divers said: “In the last two months Shetland and Forfar have been given permission to build their schools – but we are no further on.
“The people of Elgin need answers and I suggest we raise this matter with Nicola Sturgeon.”
Committee chairwoman Anne Skene added: “I would like to think the Scottish Government considers the needs of all pupils across Scotland equally, but I’m beginning to suspect that’s not the case.”
Council convener Allan Wright said: “I would support the notion that, as soon as possible, a letter be sent to the First Minister and relevant cabinet ministers expressing our disappointment.”
The authority’s head of lifelong learning, culture and sport, Graham Jarvis, explained that council chief executive Roddy Burns recently took government ministers to task over the blighted project.
The committee heard that work in Shetland was given the go-ahead due to extreme wind conditions on the island that could hamper construction over winter.
And progress was permitted in Forfar as contractors there had already launched early works.
In June it was revealed that building work on the new Elgin High School could be halted until December, due to a change in European accounting legislation.