U-turn on the cards at Thurso High School over £7.5m replacement for condemned block
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A bureaucratic blunder by Highland Council means a decision to replace a condemned Thurso High School block looks set to be overturned.
Block A at the school was found to be structurally unsound in October last year and remains closed to all staff and pupils.
The school has been using temporary modular units for classrooms since December.
Caithness councillors were invited at their meeting in late May to choose one of four options for the block – they voted to demolish and rebuild the block at a cost of £7.5 million, rather than the recommended option to just demolish it.
But it now looks like that choice should never have been on the table at the Caithness committee because only the full council can agree to allocating capital sums for school infrastructure buildings.
So council leader Raymond Bremner had to request that the council agrees to demolish the block and refer further decisions about the school to the “agreed review of the council’s capital programme”.
He was backed not just by other councillors worried that school builds in their own areas may get ditched but also by fellow Caithness members Karl Rosie and Willie MacKay.
But it provoked fury with Cllr Andrew Jarvie, who represents Thurso and Northwest Caithness, saying: “It is nothing short of an outright disgrace that the leader of the council, the first Caithness councillor to hold that position, has clubbed together with the Inverness bureaucracy to undermine a decision made in Caithness for Caithness.
“This was a chance that Caithness councillors had to stand up and do what was best for the county – instead Cllr Bremner has decided to use a little-known trick to overturn and have the decision re-made in Inverness."
But Cllr Bremner said the decision was not one for local area councillors, whether in Inverness or Caithness.
“Options put to the Caithness area committee in respect of Block A at Thurso High School included commitments to the spending of the council’s capital budget. This should not have happened,” he said.
“It is clear to all councillors, no matter what area they live in, that only the full council can determine the spending of the capital budget. The report should have been an update and a briefing on progress works."
Cllr Bremner stated investing from the capital budget cannot be done by area committees, adding that saying otherwise "can give rise to false hope and can also be misleading”.
He added: “Members of the council will debate the council’s capital programme soon and the merits of options for Thurso High School and all other schools across the Highlands can be put forward and decided on then.
“This is not a matter for Inverness councillors, nor is it a matter for Caithness councillors. This is a matter for all Highland councillors and it is to do with following the proper procedures – the same procedures that were followed to deliver the new campus and replacement schools that we have in Wick."
There are early-stage plans being investigated into a replacement for the whole school in the future, but Cllr Jarvie questioned when that might happen.
“Just what an insult it would be, first neglected roads, now the council’s next plan is to demolish part of a school and walk away," he said. "It is not good enough to just say that there will be discussions later on about a whole new campus.
“If the council will not pay the £6 million extra to just rebuild what will be torn down, there is no version of reality in which they will pay 10 times that for a whole new campus.
“Even if they did, it is 15 years away at least – a child starting P1 after summer will go all the way through to S6 without seeing a new Thurso High or campus built."
Cllr Bremner defended his own record, particularly in relation to road spending in the north.
He said: “Since I became leader just 12 months ago, Caithness is now seeing the biggest repair programme of roads in the history of this council. The neglect has been that of previous administrations.
“It’s only since I became leader and with the current administration that Caithness is finally getting what it deserves. Any Caithness councillor who lives in the county will be seeing the considerable repair programme that is under way.”
