Peebles High School replacement revisions welcomed

Revisions have been made to the multi-million pound plans for Peebles

Revisions to plans to replace a fire-hit school in the Borders have been welcomed by parents.

The old Peebles High School was badly damaged in November 2019 and a new £46m building is to be built.

However, the new design came in for criticism prompting Scottish Borders Council (SBC) to amend the floor plans for the new secondary.

The parent council said it was pleased with the "hard-won" changes and hoped to see a few more "tweaks" agreed.

Hundreds of people attended engagement sessions over the original plans prompting the alterations to the scheme.

Among the areas of concern were the size of proposed dining and assembly areas and the open plan nature of the school.

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SBC said the feedback from the public had been "truly valued" and it wanted to provide the "very best educational facility possible".

Tristan Compton, who leads the parent council's new build subgroup, said the plans were a "significant improvement" on what had previously been approved.

He thanked everyone who had given feedback to the council as well as the local authority for listening to those concerns.

Mr Compton added: "We will now be writing to SBC to urge them to take on board a small number of design tweaks and ideas, before it's too late, so that the new Peebles High School represents the very best in school design for future generations.

"Moving forward, it's important that parents and SBC work in partnership to improve decision-making and ensure that the school building is the success it needs to be."

He said that with pupils currently studying in a building that was in poor condition any delay to the new school must be avoided.