'Slum' school - time is running out
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Pressure is growing for one of Inverness’s largest secondaries — which has been branded a slum — to be replaced with a new school as soon as possible.
Inverness Royal Academy re-opened yesterday following weekend emergency repairs to a roof leak where asbestos is known to be present.
Planned work to remove asbestos will go ahead in the October holidays.
However, Ness-side councillors Norrie Donald and David Henderson believe Friday’s forced closure seals the case for a new building.
The 900-plus pupil school includes 14 "temporary" huts which were put up more than 30 years ago and have been deemed no longer fit for 21st century education.
"If any further evidence is required that this is an old building which is past its used-by-date, this is it," declared Councillor Henderson, who has described it as a slum in the past. "It is an old school and was build to standards which are no longer acceptable."
Highland Council recently agreed to fast-track improvement work at the school, making £14.7 million available over the next five years — but it has yet to be decided whether it will be a rebuild or refurbishment.
See today's Inverness Courier for the full story.
