A row has erupted over a flagship community-owned school amid claims it is caught in a “bureaucratic quagmire” slowing down its handover to the council.
The case of Strontian school, on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula, where the local community built it and will lease it back to Highland Council, was tentatively touted as a solution to crumbling schools across the north.
But months after it was supposed to have opened, locals say it has been a bruising experience – and there is still no opening date.
It is understood Highland Council officials found 140 snags, on the Ardnamurchan building – although that amount was later reduced to single figures.
Care and Learning chairman Andrew Baxter said he was committed to seeing the project through, and that lessons needed to be learned if community projects were to come forward again.
The date for school opening has still not been given to pupils or the community groups who delivered the project on time prior to the beginning of the 2018/19 school session.
Andrew Baxter said: “Strontian Primary School is caught in a bureaucratic quagmire.
“There is a lack of recognition by some, that they (the council officers) were not dealing with big business, they were dealing with a small community company who were helping us to find a solution to a problem.
“Sometimes I have felt we are just being awkward.
“And I had hoped we had got to a point where a compromise position has been found.
“I was especially careful to make the case in the council chamber for council officers to make the best of it. We should be proud of this as a model that we can use in the future.
“I want the team to come and tell us all the obstacles and problems they encountered – so we can find out how we can improve.”
Chairman Jamie MacIntyre, from Strontian, said: “I want to make it clear that we are not the source of the story about the snags, or the delay.
“But I can confirm there were 140 snags, reduced to two on a further inspection and we do not know the date the school will open.
“We have had great support from the councillors from all levels from the outset, and we have had to go to them a few times for support.”
Mr MacIntyre added that they took ownership of the school on August 7 and at about the same time the council’s building control issued a completion certificate.
He added: “For some reason that we don’t know the answer to, it wasn’t until September 18 that the council accepted the keys for the property.
“In between August and September, we were in limbo and it has caused sleepless nights. We have an enormous bank loan to pay off – any detail will have an effect on this.
“None of us are making anything from this, we are all volunteers who want to provide a primary school for our children.
“The delays have been at a cost to our time and our health.
“I don’t think I could ever say to anyone “Just do what we did”. The whole experience has been quite bruising.”
Highland Council was contacted for comment.