Moray’s Councillors have agreed to commit an additional £3million to the building of a replacement Elgin High School.
The decision was taken at Wednesday meeting of the Full Moray Council when a report said that the plan originally agreed at a cost of £7million to the local authority had not taken account of possible increased capacity calls in the future.
With Scottish Government funding of £11.6million already agreed, Councillors had several options before them including the existing plan and two options that would allow for increased capacity but take the Moray Council contribution to £10million or £12.9million.
Councillors opted for the £10million option that would allow for a capacity of 800 pupils – Elgin High School currently has fewer than 600 pupils but that is expected to rise to around 720 by the end of the decade.
While the decision on the additional spend was widely accepted there was a note of caution from Fochabers/Lhanbryde’s Labour councillor, Sean Morton, who said: “The more money the council spends on Elgin schools, the less money can be spent on others.
“We really need to have a more realistic budget when we are looking at new schools”
Moray Council are set to report next month on their future plans for the school estate throughout Moray following an extensive consultation period.