Wraps come off design for new Nairn Academy today with public given the chance to see what is planned
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THE public gets its first chance to see what is planned for the new Nairn Academy this week.
The proposed design for the new school building, which has still to be finally approved, will be presented at a consultation to be held in the current school this afternoon (Tuesday Sep 6), between 4.30pm and 6.30pm.
Members of Nairn West and Suburban Community Council were told last week that, despite the fact planning permission still has to be granted, the school is on track to be completed by 2025.
A site plan and design was presented for the first time at a stakeholders meeting on Thursday, August 25.
There has been local anger at lack of consultation over the project and local community councils had been pressing for the new building to be relocated to a larger site, to enable more community facilities to be provided.
But they have been told the current plan is the only one on the table and the project must be completed by 2025 to secure the necessary funding.
A replacement school building for Nairn Academy was included in Phase 2 of the Scottish Government’s Learning Estate Investment Programme (LEIP) announced in December 2020, and funding for the project is included in the reprofiled capital programme approved by the council in January 2021.
After attending last month’s stakeholders meeting, local community councillor Graham Stuart said: “We must try and look forward and support the school and ensure for the sake of the pupils a good project is delivered.”
Reporting on further updates from the meeting he added: “The new Tain Academy has recently been approved and the other leading projects, Nairn and Broadford, were still pending.
“Pre-build activities are progressing as normal and the official line is that the project is still on-course
to deliver the new building by October-end 2025, which is a pre-requisite for the phase 2 LEIP funding, with demolition and landscaping works thereafter.”
There has also been local unhappiness about plans to relocate Nairn’s public library from the High Street to the new academy building when it opens, but Mr Stuart said the school design and library provision are independent of each other and, while a footprint for the library is presented as part of the plans for the new school, it appeared to be a “flexible space” with resolution of the library location not regarded as urgent for the project.
Mr Stuart said the design had a relatively small footprint over three floors, was more energy efficient and fitted within constraints for a new build retaining a synthetic pitch, proximity to homes and the railway line.
“Energy efficiency has taken a high priority and proximity to local houses looks very reasonable to me,” he said.
“Personally, I thought the design looked pretty attractive and it was an impressive presentation.”
Today’s in-person consultation event at Nairn Acadeny will be attended by school staff, council officials, members of the project design team and design and build contractor Balfour Beatty.
There will also be an opportunity to review project information boards and ask any questions during two online presentations of the plans on Thursday, at 2pm and 7pm on MS Teams.
Anyone wishing to join can request a link to the meetings from CLestates@highland.gov.uk
Details of the proposed redevelopment will be uploaded to https://bit.ly/3Rcmj41
There will also be an opportunity to record comments on the day.
