Plot for new school secured

Planning: Application to build facility to be submitted this month

A planning application to build a high school in Lerwick is set to be submitted before the end of the month after the local authority has managed to secure the final plot of land for an undisclosed sum.

Shetland Islands Council’s head of children services Helen Budge said she was confident that the new £42million Anderson High School would be ready by August 2016 despite the time it took to negotiate the land sale.

The SIC have announced that a final agreement to purchase a parcel of land to the north and west of the Clickimin rugby pitches had been reached with Shetland Leasing and Property Developments Ltd.

Property development firm Slap is a company wholly owned by charity Shetland Charitable Trust, which holds more than £200million of Shetland’s oil funds.

Slap chairwoman Susan Groat said she was delighted that a “final agreement” with the council had been reached. Ms Budge said she expected the planning application process to last between three and four months meaning that construction work on the new 1,180 pupil school and associated halls of residence will start in August at the earliest. She said theHubco building consortium had given assurances that the school could still be delivered on time.

“It took longer than expected butweare delighted to have all the land, and that is another big step forward for the project. What Hubco tells us is that it is not unusual for schools to be built in less than two years – and they have the evidence for that as all the big schools they have completed over the last few years have been built in that timescale. At the moment we are comfortable with what Hubco is telling us and are looking forward for the school to open in August 2016,” she said.

Twothirds of the funding for the £42 million project is coming from the Scottish Government with the remainder financed by the SIC.

Equipped with a socalled ‘affordability cap’ the council is obliged to cut back on the project should it be in danger of going over budget.

VISION: An artist’s impression of the new £42million Anderson High School – which is expected to be ready in August 2016