Speaking at a meeting of the Royal Burgh of Wick Community Council on Monday, Graeme Smith said the next few months would be critical and that the issue would come down to funding.

Mr Smith said that at the latest meeting of the Highland Council's education, culture and sport committee the Caithness members had "turned the heat up" on the Wick High School issue but had not been particularly well received.

"We made it very clear, however, that the status quo was not acceptable," said Mr Smith, who stressed that the campaigners were going to have to maintain considerable pressure in their bid to make a new school a reality.

Mr Smith warned: "It will come down to funding at the end of the day, and unless someone can pull a rabbit out of the hat the necessary money is not going to be available. There is going to have to be sustained, organised, community pressure."

He said that if other communities saw that Wick was making ground it would encourage them to mount bids for their schools. He added: "We have got to be ahead of the game."

The high school's parent council has claimed that the school is run down and is no longer fit for 21st-century education.

Community councillor Jenny Bruce said that, if it was not for the fact that the Higher exams were imminent, the situation was serious enough to justify strike action by the teaching staff.

Councillors were told that the Wick campaign was gathering pace and the BBC and STV were starting to follow the lead taken by the John O'Groat Journal and the Caithness Courier in highlighting the issue.

First Minister Alex Salmond has yet to say whether he is taking the Wick parent council up on its invitation to come north and see the lamentable state of the building.

Far North MSP Jamie Stone is hoping to enlist the moral and legal support of a prominent "old boy" of the school, Lord Boyd of Duncansby, formerly Lord Advocate. The Lib Dem MSP is seeking a ruling from him as to whether conditions at the school amount to a breach of human rights.

HM Inspectorate of Education has been urged to carry out an inspection of the school as a matter of urgency and an online petition in support of a new school has now reached 462 signatures.

n.donaldson@nosn.co.uk

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