Plans for a much-need second primary school in an Aberdeenshire town have been delayed.
Kintore Primary School is already well over capacity, and last year the council agreed to prioritise building another one to end the overcrowding.
Work was due to start on the Midmill site earlier this year, with the aim of having the school complete by next autumn.
But yesterday Aberdeenshire Council announced the scheme has been set back a year as the developers are not yet ready to transfer the site into the authority’s ownership.
Now the authority has vowed to seek a compulsory purchase order for the site if their continuing negotiations with the Kintore Consortium – Kirkwood Homes, Barratt Homes and Malcolm Allan Homes – and landowners are not successful.
Nearly 600 children are currently learning in cramped conditions at the existing Kintore school, which was designed for 415 youngsters when it opened in 2006.
With more people moving to the town, and scores of housing planned for the coming years, local councillors urged the authority to bring the second school project forward to 2015 to ease the pressure.
But last night a spokeswoman for the Kintore Consortium said the delay was down to the council, and said the developers were “absolutely committed” to delivering the school.
She said: “We strongly refute the claim we are holding progress back in the transfer of land to Aberdeenshire Council for the development of the primary school.
“We have been discussing the transfer of the primary school with Aberdeenshire Council officials since early last year and despite our best efforts to progress this with Aberdeenshire we have been disappointed about the length of time this has taken. In fact, we only reached agreement on broad terms last week.
“Our planning application, submitted in November last year, was due to be presented to committee in February and is now four months behind schedule, despite our work to keep it on track.
“We have raised our concerns with officials that these delays beyond our control have put plans to build the school by autumn 2015 at risk.”