Parents are fighting plans to merge two schools within a new £71 million campus amid fears for children who would have to cross a busy road to reach classes.
Dales Park and Meethill schools in Peterhead have been recommended to be combined into a single primary school at the Peterhead Community Campus, which is expected to be built by 2025 after Nicola Sturgeon visited the town last year to confirm the cash for the mammoth scheme.
The merger will result in pupils from other parts of the town being relocated to the new facility at Kindmundy.
Youngsters aged from three to 18 will be educated at the new campus, which will include other community spaces.
A report outlining the future of the two primary schools will be presented before a committee on Thursday, with recommendations for further talks with parents and staff on the move.
However, Peterhead councillor Stephen Calder said many of his constituents have already expressed concerns about the proposal.
He said: “There are various issues that need to be addressed assuming it’s going ahead.
“Staff and parents have never been keen on it at any meeting I’ve been to – they have always opposed it.
“The school at the moment is very much part of the community in Meethill, and people feel that that link will be broken if it’s moved up to the Peterhead Community Campus.
“There is also the problem of children from the Meethill area walking up to the Kinmundy site, because they have to walk across a very busy road.
“The only way to get to the site is also only up Cairntrodlie road, which is already choked with traffic with parents picking kids from Clerkhill School, so I don’t know how it’s going to work.
“I wouldn’t like the feeling that this is pushed forward against their will, so whatever the community says I’m there to represent them and if they want to stay in that site, I would be very much supporting them in improving the facilities in their existing site, rather than moving to a new one.”
The proposed project will also result in the relocation of the Anna Ritchie school for children with complex needs, which will retain its status as an independent school within the Peterhead Cammunity Campus.
