PLANS to replace the existing Galashiels Academy with a new £55m state-of-the-art community campus on the town’s Scott Park have been unanimously endorsed.

Members of Scottish Borders Council’s Planning and Building Standards Committee gave their approval for a “transformational campus offering open-plan and modern learning environments which will also provide a variety of versatile spaces for use by the whole community” at a meeting on Monday (September 5).

It is now expected that work on the two-storey school will start during the summer of 2023, with completion in 2025 and demolition works of the existing school to follow.

Approval was agreed despite serious concerns from the Friends of Scott Park group at the loss of “treasured green space”.

Scottish Borders Council has counter-argued that the plan would ultimately open up more parkland for use.

At Monday’s meeting, Leaderdale and Melrose councillor David Parker spoke in favour of the development.

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He said: “The Galashiels building is in a very poor state of repair and lacks a significant number of facilities that should happen in a modern school.

“When I became an elected member for Tweedbank in 1995, 99 per cent of the P7 class went to Galashiels Academy, which is their cluster school. Now most children in P7 go to Earlston High School and they are doing so because that school has much better, more significant and improved facilities that aren’t available for children at Galashiels.

“The application before you seeks to develop a new state-of-the-art Galashiels Academy and also enhance the Scott Park. It looks to provide a whole range of community facilities and a whole range of sporting facilities and it looks to provide the school in a sympathetic way in a parkland setting.

“The team behind it have gone to great lengths to make sure that there are environmental mitigation and, in fact, they intend to turn Scott Park, which at the moment is not one of the most used and most environmentally suited parks in the Borders, into something special, giving it a much better diversity of parkland, investing in its green space and creating a much more environmentally attractive feature.”

John Campbell, speaking on behalf of the Friends of Scott Park, addressed the Scott Park’s importance to townsfolk.

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He said: “In 1938, Henry Scott, the Laird of the day, donated Scott Park to the people of Galashiels.

“He gave the park free as a pleasure park for the benefit of the people of Galashiels to be used for pleasure only and without buildings.

“Scott’s vision was that the working man needed a break. Scott Park has been used extensively as a park and during the COVID pandemic it has been particularly appreciated and been used by families and children and sporting groups.

“It follows that the loss of the park, because there will be a loss, will have a serious adverse effect on the people of Galashiels.

“You can have a new school, you can keep the existing park and improve it, all on the same site, but look at the options where to put the school building – it should be to the south of the existing building.”

All members of the planning committee offered support for the new development.

Hawick and Hermitage councillor Jane Cox said:  “I know the condition of Galashiels Academy and I think this is a very good move forward. Hopefully it will mean that more children from Tweedbank will attend Galashiels Academy rather than Earlston High School, because Galashiels Academy is much nearer to Tweedbank.”

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Hawick and Denholm councillor Neil Richards added: “This is a tired 1960s building, well past its sell-by-date and a new building will address all the modern requirements. It looks well-placed. Yes, we are losing some trees but we are getting 72 new ones.”

But despite the planning approval being granted the building of the new school faces potential delay.

Ahead of the meeting, the Friends of Scott Park group has asked Scottish Government to call in the plans to replace the existing academy.

It is a move which has alarmed Scottish Borders Council leader and Galashiels councillor Euan Jardine, who fears the project could be delayed by more than a year by the opposition, with the condition of the current school rated as “poor” in a recent study.