A senior councillor has hinted there could be a case to merge primary schools in a Moray town.
Yesterday the children and young people’s services committee was given an update on school rolls for the current academic year.
A moratorium on school closures in the region will no longer be valid following council elections next year.
Chairwoman, Anne Skene, highlighted five schools in Buckie that are all about half empty and invited committee members to consider how full the classrooms were.
Vice-chairman, George Alexander, has described low rolls as a “waste of resources”.
Forres councillor Mrs Skene said: “With the refurbishment and extra modular classrooms at Applegrove Primary the school’s occupancy is currently at 50% of capacity.
“I would like to draw attention to another school a mile and a half away, which has an occupancy rate of 49% at the moment.
“There are five schools in this area and they are all at less than 52% of capacity, three of them are within four miles of each other. Can I just leave everyone with that to deliberate on?”
The number of primary pupils in the region has increased by about 150 since last year with the total capacity of the buildings increasing by more than 300 due to refurbishment works.
Three schools in Moray have had their space boosted in the past year with new temporary accommodation, including Applegrove in Forres, St Gerardine’s in Lossiemouth and Millbank in Buckie.
