The Highland Council has revealed plans to review developer contributions towards schools in the Inverness area.

Members of the council's Places Committee are set to discuss plans to raise the per-pupil cost per-dwelling to a maximum of £3,449 for secondary schools and £6,983 for primary schools, excluding land costs.

The new rates are proposed for new primary and secondary schools for any new development where there is a clear need for new schools as a result of construction.

With the forecasted phasing of housing sites indicating primary schools are under pressure, significant additional capacity is required to support their growth.

All Inverness secondary school's are predicted to go over capacity within the next 15 years, while three out the five Inverness secondary schools are already experiencing capacity issues with school rolls in excess of 90%.

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Council Leader, Margaret Davidson, explained: "We are planning ahead for school capacity, particularly in primary schools, to keep up with development in the city.

"The Council is undertaking proactive work to ensure that our future communities can be provided with the facilities required to support a good quality of life and the future education of our children."

A review is now underway on the Developer Contributions Supplementary Guidance which was adopted in March 2013 and a new draft policy is anticipated to be reported to the Places Committee in November for approval. In addition, a review of the Action Programme for the Inner Moray Firth Local Development Plan (IMFLDP) is providing an up to date picture of the infrastructure requirements to support growth in the IMFLDP area.

The council said: "This work has highlighted that the methodology for calculating developer contributions for education needs to be updated. It has also highlighted that to meet the requirements for new schools to support future growth in Inverness in particular the new-build costs set out in the existing Developer Contributions Supplementary Guidance need to be clarified."

(LM/MH)