Battle of Culloden Academy as major Inverness school left out of Highland Investment Plan but four others – Charleston, Fortrose, Inverness High and Beauly Primary – will move ahead at a cost of £148m

Highland Council will proceed with a £148 million wave of new school investments in the Inverness area in a vote the convener described as a “momentous day” for the region - but some argue one school is missing out.

Inverness South member Duncan Macpherson put it directly when he said: “The talk in my ward is about the Battle of Culloden - and today’s battle is for a new school for the population of Culloden.”

Councillors unanimously agreed to “the allocation of capital funding” to Charleston Academy, Fortrose Academy, Beauly Primary, and Inverness High School - set to be completed by 2030.

The news may come as a relief to staff and parents of future pupils in the catchment areas of the badly rundown schools after years of complaints about crumbling buildings and poor attainment.

The roster of schools that will be totally or partially rebuilt are: Beauly Primary to be operational in 2027/28; Charleston Academy to open by 2029/30; and both Fortrose Academy and Inverness High are targeted for completion by 2029/30.

Beauly has been budgeted at £20 million; Charleston Academy at £80 million; Fortrose Academy and Inverness High are to get £24 million each.

That is on top of the Tain Campus, Nairn Academy, and the Broadford and Tornagrain projects and two major projects called Points of Delivery (PODs) in Dingwall and Thurso.

It may ease the bitterness from one of Highland Council’s biggest ever U-turns when in September 2023 when the SNP-Independent administration ditched 10 long-promised school projects to slash around £120 million from its capital programme.

The same month, chief executive Derek Brown arrived and within eight months the £2 billion Highland Investment Plan (HIP) was announced providing cash for the schools housing and roads paid for by borrowing.

The pace of development is startling as the proposed opening dates of the new schools were agreed three weeks after the council budget ring-fenced two of the seven per cent rise in council tax for investment in the HIP.

But just three years after new plans were unveiled for Culloden Academy - once at the top of the list for redevelopment due to overcrowding - the school was not mentioned, despite it being among the 10 school projects ditched by the council in 2023.

What changed was the assessment based on the suitability of Highland schools and their condition - that basically showed that some schools are worse off than Culloden.

The introduction of demountable classrooms at Culloden which reduced the pressure on the school roll and that combined with new rules mean a benchmark for “optimum occupancy” is “generally around 90 per cent”.

That was decided in a paper called the learning estate strategy which was agreed by the education committee at its recent meeting to set out “the consideration of future options around individual schools or groups of schools”.

Effectively that has nixed Culloden’s chances of making it onto the HIP as the threshold cannot be met due to the demountables which are now not considered temporary but permanent.

Liberal Democrat opposition leader Alasdair Christie asked a question that confirmed that just one school in the Highlands had “temporary” demountable classrooms - Craighill Primary School in Tain.

That will be a significant blow to the school community who just a few years ago were generally welcoming about the totally redrawn plans for the academy after the budget exploded for the original proposals.

Cllr Macpherson said “Culloden is the fastest growing community in the whole of this council.

“And whichever way it is dressed up, Culloden Academy has the most demountable temporary classrooms of any school in the north of Scotland – how can that be acceptable?”

The HIP update was broadly welcomed across the chamber though there remained scepticism in some quarters about whether the council would deliver on its promise this time.

Council leader Raymond Bremner recognised the timeline is essential so that HIP has credibility with the public.

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