The Wick Schools' Stakeholders Group has been advised that the new £39m Community Campus building will be handed over to the Highland Council in February 2016.

The campus is expected to open from Easter 2016.

Initially, the scheduled handover date had been summer 2015.

However, the new £14m Primary School north of the river remains on course to be handed over to the Council in June 2015, with its doors opening in August 2015 as originally planned.

The revised date for the secondary school was agreed with representatives with Hub North Scotland Limited and Miller Construction UK in Inverness late last week.

The revised handover date will ensure that high quality facilities will be delivered.

The reasons for the programme slipping behind schedule were explained to the Group and included:

• Achieving a design that meets the authority's requirements in relation to natural ventilation and lighting. Planning approval was granted in mid-August which represented significant progress, while detailed design work is on-going, particularly in relation to the roof area.

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• A complicated contract structure which involves significant legal and financial specialist input and which relies heavily on external funders.

• Ensuring that during the tendering of over 60 work packages, local suppliers will be provided with every opportunity to bid for work across the community campus and north of the river projects. Local Members have consistently emphasised the importance of local contractors being provided with every opportunity to bid for work packages.

Now, with the Council having considered the various factors, a decision was made to push back the handover date to ensure the best outcome for the school communities.

Councillor Gail Ross, Chair of the Stakeholders Group, said: "It's well known that big build projects like this often encounter delays for one reason or another but that doesn't make this any less disappointing.

"It's worth pointing out that an Easter 2016 opening does give more leeway for teachers to get the classrooms ready and leaves the final term for more fun integration for the kids, instead of having to focus entirely on the curriculum.

"I am satisfied that this new entry date will not cause interruption to the children's learning- that's what we need to focus on. We need to make sure we deliver a top quality school, not a rushed job with potential cut corners.

"The council will continue to work closely with Hub North and Miller Construction to ensure there are no further delays and that we deliver the building that our community expects."

(JP/CD)