New Lochaber school and fire station to share site

Work will start on the new fire station and school at the end of April

A new primary school and fire station are to be built on the same site in Ardnamurchan, in Lochaber.

Lochaline Primary will be demolished in phases and replaced by a new two-classroom building with a fire station nearby.

Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service has contributed £300,000 towards Highland Council's £3.2m project.

Work is expected to start at the end of this month and finish next summer.

McGregor Construction (Highland) Ltd, which operates from Inverness and Fort William, has been awarded the contract.

Pupils helped to gather rare slow worms from the site of their new school last year.

The legless lizards were found by an ecologist asked to survey the new school site nearby.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) recommended catching and relocating them before they went into hibernation.

The children laid out mats, carpet tiles and strips of corrugated iron in their nature garden to help try to catch the lizards, which are a protected species.

When warmed by the sun, the various materials attracted the cold-blooded slow worms.