Lime trees block Ross special needs school upgrade
SPECIAL needs children in Ross-shire face spending another winter in a damp, leaking and overcrowded school - because the council is worried about damaging lime trees.
Local Highland Councillor Fiona Robertson has hit out at the slow progress in refurbishing St Duthus School in Tain, saying the pupils cannot spend yet another winter in a "disgraceful" building.
Cllr Robertson was told lime trees are to blame for the hold-ups in the £1.9 million project to erect huts at St Duthus School.
Four new classrooms are in the pipeline at the front of the crumbling Duthac House but the final proposals will only be shared with parents and the head teacher "when available", stated a report this week.
That angered the Tain and Easter Ross councillor who had warned back in January with ward colleague Alasdair Rhind that parents were up in arms about an apparent impasse.
She told the adult and children’s services committee that it had been publicly stated she did not want the children to spend another winter in that "disgraceful" building.
"Can we have a definitive timeline so we can tell the parents and the staff when they can look forward to moving into a new building?" asked Councillor Robertson.
Fellow Tain councillor Jamie Stone echoed her views and said the school had to be in the authority’s "collective conscience".
Senior education official Ron MacKenzie said the council was attempting to build the classrooms in a "tight site" and was in a delicate position because it did not want to harm the roots of nearby lime trees.
He said a briefing on the situation would be given to the Tain and Easter Ross councillors next week.
A new "life skills" room and ancillary accommodation are also planned.
The school has a roll of about 18 pupils, aged between three and 18, and had a large catchment area from Alness, Golspie and Lairg.
In January, the committee chairman Councillor Alasdair Christie said it would be "a good news" story for everybody should the St Duthus plans be formalised in March.
The authority’s education department prefers the use of "modular" accommodation instead of a refurbishment because it would only be needed until a new multi-million pound 3-18 education campus in Tain was built.
