A much-needed Aberdeenshire primary school may not open its doors to youngsters until 2017 after its opening was pushed back for a third time.
The new 540-pupil Midmill School, in Kintore, was originally due to welcome its first intake in August this year but problems securing the land for the site pushed the date back to August 2016.
However Aberdeenshire Council has now revealed the school is unlikely to be completed before December 2016 – meaning children may not start arriving until 2017.
East Garioch councillor Martin Ford said: “We must accept, very unfortunately, the new school is not going to be ready for August 2016.
“We really needed to be on site at the beginning of April and it is now June.”
The Green councillor said he was still hopeful that the school could be completed by October 2016 so that pupils could settle in before the winter.
Aberdeenshire Council’s director of education and children’s services, Maria Walker said: “Work will begin in August and as with all major building projects will also be dependent on factors such as weather conditions therefore the current estimate for completion is by December 2016.”
She added that the council would work with parents and children to “minimise the impact of any delay in construction”.
It is hoped the new school will ease the strain on the current 415-pupil Kintore Primary in the rapidly expanding village.
Disputes between the landowners and developers, Kintore Consortium – made up of Kirkwood Homes, Malcolm Allan and Barratt Homes – led the council to apply for a compulsory purchase order (CPO) through the Scottish Government to acquire the site.
Following a public inquiry the government came out in support of the CPO.
Chairman of the Kintore Community Council, Brian Johnstone, said the late completion date could have been avoided had the council acted sooner to obtain the order.
He said: “We are obviously not happy with the delays ,it is terrible that the kids are going to go through a changeover mid-term. It is not good for Kintore.
“The community is suffering because of the delays in getting this sorted. Nobody is happy about it.
“In hindsight the council should have started the CPO sooner to mitigate these delays but they didn’t.”