Flood threat dampens £100m AWG Highland schools deal

AWG's bid for Highland Council's £100m public private partnership (PPP) schools deal could be scuppered as doubts have been raised about the viability of one scheme in the 10-school package.
CJ has learnt that the £15m new build school contract for Dingwall Academy could be scrapped by the Scottish Executive because the proposed site for the school's playing field is on a flood plain.
This could breach new laws set down recently by the Executive to tighten up building in flood-risk areas and might see the scheme stripped from the deal, impacting on the roll-out of the whole programme.
A council spokeswoman played down the threat and said the site for the new school suffers simply from drainage problems.
"The project has outline planning permission and we won't know more until we get into detailed planning. Meanwhile, we have referred the issue to the Scottish Executive, which will give its verdict by next month."
AWG, part of the Alpha Schools consortium, is the only bidder for the scheme. It is expected to be named preferred bidder next month with financial close set for later this year. Construction is due to start
next year.