Angry parents have demanded urgent action from Highland Council over a nursery that is so damp that the children’s pictures fall off the walls.
It was revealed that children as young as three were spending more than 15 hours a week inside the damp and rotting portable cabins, erected 30 years ago as a temporary measure.
The walls at Ullapool Primary School Nursery are said to be so damp that children’s pictures cannot be put up because Blu-Tack will not stick due the moisture. And when tacks are used they pierce through the sagging wall surface.
A report from an unannounced visit by the Care Inspectorate is expected to confirm that the classroom and toilet facilities are unfit for purpose.
Now parents are are so concerned that they are going to remove their children from the nursery.
There are around 45 pre-school children, aged between three and five, who attend nursery classes in English and Gaelic at the hutted nursery accommodation beside Ullapool Primary School.
Worried parents and Ullapool Primary School Parent Council have written to Highland Council urging them to take urgent action before the new school term in August.
The parent council said they had received no response from director of education Hugh Fraser.
The Rev Alasdair Macleod, secretary of the parent council and father-of-two, has been lobbying Highland Council for the past year on this issue.
He said: “The building was supposed to be temporary, but now over 30 years later it is completely rotten and something has to be done.
“We know that Highland Council is short on money, but this is absolutely disgraceful.
“It is immoral that one of the most vulnerable groups in our society (children aged 3-5) are being neglected due to budget priorities within the council.
“It comes as no surprise that some folk are starting to consider pulling their wee ones out of the nursery if nothing is done before the start of term.”
Parent council chairman and father-of-four, Alan Sears added: “It is intolerable that our youngest and most vulnerable children will be forced to use this wholly inadequate structure for yet another term.
“The health and wellbeing of our children has to be the number one concern and must always be put before shuffling budgets and red tape.”
Mother Geraldine Murray whose daughter is due to start nursery, said: “I’m having to seriously reconsider whether to send her at all.”