Lochaber primary schools to share campus

Other schools with declining rolls will be formally closed

Plans to combine two Catholic schools on a joint campus with a non-religious primary have been approved.

The move involving Lochyside and Fort William RC schools and Caol Primary were opposed by Catholic parents and the bishop of Argyll and the Isles.

Highland Council's education, culture and sport committee has voted in favour of the plan.

Four schools which have been shut for some time will be formally closed and a fifth school will be "mothballed".

Fort William and Upper Achintore primary schools will also be merged in a new school on a site yet to be identified.

Catholic parents in Lochaber and the Right Reverend Joseph Toal, Bishop of Argyll and the Isles, had been keen to see the Catholic schools continue.

As well as approving the joint campus, committee members voted to formally close four schools which were mothballed some time ago.

The schools are Borrodale on Skye, Achaphuibil near Fort William, Achnasheen in Wester Ross and Glenborrodale in Ardnamurchan.

Uig on Skye, which would have had one pupil on its school roll in August, is to be mothballed.