Plans to install temporary classrooms at four Inverness schools have fuelled a bitter row over claims the city’s education system is heading for “catastrophe”.
Highland Council lodged plans for double demountable units at Holm, Hilton and Smithton primaries, as well as Inverness High School.
The move emerged just weeks after the local authority announced that eight Inverness primaries would be capped for the next academic year, up from five this year.
Critics said the temporary buildings would be the “first of many” across the north as schools were left full to bursting point because of new housing developments.
Inverness South councillor Ken Gowans laid the blame at the door of the previous council administration.
“It’s already a crisis and, because of a lack of planning by the administration, it’s turning into a catastrophe,” the opposition SNP member said.
“We will be seeing it happen across Inverness and even the Highlands in the next wee while. It’s to try and mitigate some of the school roll pressures we’ve got in the short term.
“There’s simply no room, yet we continue to allow planning applications to go forward for big, new housing developments.
“It’s across the board that we are seeing these roll pressures. These classrooms will be the first of many.”
Despite new schools having been recently built at Inverness Royal Academy and Millburn Academy, all five city secondary schools are expected to be oversubscribed within a decade as a result of new housing development and population growth.
Radical ideas proposed to solve the problem have included separating older and younger pupils, and asking one age group to attend school in the morning and another in the afternoon.
One councillor even suggested that Inverness youngsters may soon have to be bussed out of the city to go to school.
Highland Council leader Margaret Davidson said the problems started a long time before her Independent group took power.
She said: “It’s certainly not a crisis. We certainly have roll pressures, that’s why the modular buildings are going in.
“These modular buildings are hugely better than anything we’ve ever seen before in terms of temporary classrooms, by the way.
“There hasn’t been good planning ahead for schools for many years. We were only in administration for the last 20 months.
“But we’ve taken a really strong grip on this now. There’s a lot of work to do and there was a lot of work to pick up because it hadn’t been done before. Believe me, we’re on it.”
She suggested that communities could be consulted on changes to school catchment areas and other potential solutions.
In March, councillors agreed a £194million, eight-year programme of priority school projects, although full funding for the work is not in place.
In Inverness, it featured a new primary for Ness Castle, the redevelopment of the Merkinch campus including a new family centre, an extension and refurbishment of Smithton Primary and extra accommodation for Kinmylies Primary.
A new nursery annexe is planned for Milton Of Leys School along with additional classrooms at Charleston and Culloden academies.
A school is proposed for the new 1,800-home Stratton development on the east side of Inverness, while Hilton Primary is to be extended and refurbished and a possible new secondary school would be built in the city.
Charleston Academy and Kinmylies Primary are included in a list for priority action by 2020-21, and a school is needed for the new town of Tornagrain.
The planning application for a demountable unit at Smithton Primary was lodged by Highland Council and then withdrawn, for unknown reasons.
Smithton and Culloden Community Council chairman David McGrath said it was badly needed.
“As far as we’re aware that was part of the provision for the first phase of the Stratton development,” he said.
“All of the schools in the area have been capped – Balloch, Duncan Forbes and Smithton. It’s a major concern to all of us.
“We’re pressing for a brand new school and I think a site has been allocated in the development of Stratton, but it’s that old chestnut: who is going to pay for it?”
