Plans to spend up to £77million on a new school will reach another milestone tomorrow.
Aberdeenshire Council’s education committee meet to discuss proposals on the future of Peterhead Academy.
Members have been asked to comment on proposals to replace the ageing secondary school with a new facility elsewhere in the town.
A recent consultation suggested local people would prefer a new school complete with community and sports facilities to be built at Kinmundy Road.
The current building, in the town centre, is more than 60 years old.
In the report to be discussed by the committee, the council’s director of education Maria Walker said the cost of building a new school could reach as much as £77million.
Funding has yet to be secured for the project.
She said: “The emerging, preferred option is to develop a campus at the Kinmundy Road site.
“This option provides the opportunity to develop a full community campus. It has the advantage that there will be no disruption to users during the construction phase, all facilities can be provided at one location, and there are no site constraints.
“Further engagement will be required on how best to provide sporting, cultural and general community facilities at the campus and elsewhere across the town.
“It is important all factors are considered as part of developing a business case.”
Another option, not been supported by the public, would have resulted in Peterhead Academy being rebuilt on its current ground in a phased approach.
Peterhead’s Buchan area committee has already supported developing a business case for the new school.
Local councillor Stephen Smith said: “It is important to understand that no decision has been taken on any of the possible sites for a new academy.
“Clearly, the business case needs to stack up in terms of applying for the funding to build a new academy and it’s important this takes all factors into account.
“As part of the process, we also need to have impact studies done on what this might mean for the town centre.”
