A watchdog has warned that a children’s nursery in Wester Ross is in “urgent need of refurbishment.”
The Care Inspectorate said the care and support provided by Ullapool Primary School nursery was “very good.”
But it found the quality of environment at was “weak” due to ongoing issues linked to age and physical deterioration of the building.
Highland Council officers met with the headteacher and parent council members last month to review the proposals for a new nursery, which still need work to refine the proposed layout.
A local authority spokeswoman said no decision has yet been made on timescales as no funding has yet been identified for the project.
However, a decision is expected by the end of the financial year which means work could start in 2018.
The plans involve removing the existing school hut and building an extension to provide modern facilities for both English and Gaelic provision.
But local councillors have raised the issue several times and say the work is long overdue.
Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh councillor Ian Cockburn said: “It’s not something that’s just happened in the last five years; it’s about 20 to 30 years of neglect.
“If you look behind things in the nursery, it does not take long for dampness to come back in. Workmen have been in doing repairs every summer for the last three or four years.
“We will push to make sure it does get done next year.
“A lot of schools in Wester Ross are in a terrible condition and I’ve been banging on about this for a while.
“At Strathconon Primary School the kids still have to go to an outside toilet.”
Inspectors also noted in their report that parents and carers were unaware of the timescales for building the new nursery.
The report recommends that the council officially informs the regulator of the plans in place for the proposed new build.
This was also recommended in the previous inspection report published in October 2016.
Positive, nurturing relationships were identified by the report between staff, children and their parents.
The quality of staffing at the nursery was graded as “good” and the quality of management and leadership rated “adequate.”
The inspection was carried out on October 3 and the findings were published yesterday.
