Plans for a £30 million school are set to be approved by councillors today.
The proposed Bertha Park development on the north side of Perth has been chosen as the preferred location for the new school campus.
Funding is already in place, with two-thirds of the cost of the secondary element, estimated to be around £23m, being met by the Scottish Futures Trust, subject to a positive outcome from a statutory consultation.
Perth and Kinross Council will pay for the rest of the senior school from its composite capital budget.
It is anticipated that the cost of creating the primary school element, which will be at least £7.85m, will be funded through developer contributions, while a further bid for cash will be made to introduce a nursery.
Once completed, the all-through school will provide education for 1,100 secondary pupils, a two-stream primary school and a nursery with eight full-time, 40 morning and 40 afternoon places.
A number of other potential sites were examined, including Oudenarde and the Carse of Gowrie.
However, they were rejected as Bertha Park was considered to be more viable as it lies within walking distance of significant proposed housing developments in the area.
Although members of the local authority’s lifelong learning executive sub-committee will be asked to approve the report, it advises that the timescale is “complex” and contains a “number of dependencies”.
Executive director of education and children’s services John Fyffe said: “In addition to procuring the design and construction, a catchment area for the new all-through school is required.
“The ability of the council to acquire the site and have the infrastructure in place to access it are the current major risks to the progress of the preferred option.
“In order to reduce and mitigate these risks, officers need to continue ongoing discussions with a range of parties to determine their intended timescales and bring back reports to members on progress with these discussions.
“Should it prove unviable to progress with the preferred location, an appraisal of the situation would take place at that time.”
Although the council has already earmarked Bertha Park as the ideal location for the new school, it still needs to secure land.
With a number of new houses set for that area, in accordance with the local development plan, the local authority hopes to enter negotiations with developers.
According to a risk assessment attached to the main report, it is confident that an agreement can be reached and has classed the probability of failing to secure sufficient land as “low”, stating it will enter into early discussions with developers.
Subject to councillors’ agreement, a detailed statutory consultation exercise on the proposal will be developed this year and it is hoped that work can start on the site by March 2017.
Perth and Kinross lifelong learning convener Bob Band said: “This is a major development proposal for the school estate in Perth and Kinross and I am very pleased that we have secured national funding for a significant element of this new all-through school.
“There is a complex and detailed process which we now have to go through in our aim to bring this proposal to fruition and a crucial part of this is the site for the new school.”
sgray@thecourier.co.uk