It is understood that construction work on a new Elgin High School will commence next year as planned. The confirmation comes after it was revealed that access issues still need to be resolved regarding the project.

Last week, a meeting of Moray Council's Children and Young Person's Committee were informed that a "detailed agreement" concerning access for vehicles to the school still needs to be reached with the local authority's roads officials. In addition, the committee was also told that there is a shortfall of funds – around £1.5m – between the funding committed to the project compared to the estimated cost.

Currently, costs for the new school are estimated at £26.1m, based on industry estimates, however this figure would increase if the project is delayed.

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Members were also advised that the timescale to deliver the school is now tighter due to delays in the early stages of the design process. As a result, it has been said that any further delay will lead to monthly inflation costs of £100,000 being added to the total cost.

Graham Jarvis, Moray Council's head of Lifelong Learning, Sport and Culture, said: "As things stand we only have access to the site through residential areas, and at school times this would create huge traffic problems. Add to that the significant construction traffic and it's clear that this would be totally unacceptable.

"Although the planning application for the school has been submitted along with one for the Edgar Road extension, there are still issues to be resolved with the council as roads authority. The project team are meeting with planning and roads staff to resolve these."

Despite the above issues, construction work is scheduled to commence on the development in March 2015. If the programme is delivered on time, the school could be ready for pupils by October 2016. The former school would then be demolished and a new 3G sports pitch created by May 2017.

(JP/CD)