Furious parents are battling to rescue a £14 million plan to build a new school in Pitlochry.
Councillors will be asked on Wednesday afternoon to ditch long-standing proposals for a replacement primary building in the Highland Perthshire town.
The money saved will be ploughed into a £50 million scheme to rebuild Perth High School.
On Tuesday morning, about 50 parents and carers gathered at the school gates holding banners reading: “Don’t sacrifice our school”.
Hundreds have also signed an online petition, urging council bosses to rethink the proposal.
Independent councillor Xander McDade said: “Pitlochry Primary School was showing its age when I attended it nearly 15 years ago.
“It will soon be nearly 50 and as a pre-fab building it was never designed or expected to last for this long.”
He said he was “appalled” that the council administration was considering shelving the plan.
“The children of Pitlochry deserve the same modern learning environment as their peers at other similar schools elsewhere in Perth and Kinross,” he said.
Mother-of-three Tracey Stewart added: “There is a lot of support for the school in the community and there is a strong feeling that the council is now reneging on it’s promise of a new school.”
Jim Laurenson, who chairs Pitlochry and Moulin Community Council said: “There is real concern in the community about the future of the school and there would be a lot of people unhappy if it wasn’t replaced as the council previously committed to do.”
In a report produced by council accountants, a spokesman said: “The council has committed around £2.8 million in improvement works to Pitlochry Primary School.
“This investment will ensure that the building remains operational beyond the timescale of this current capital budget.”
He said: “Therefore, it is proposed to remove the funding for the replacement of Pitlochry Primary School from the programme at this stage.”
Perth and North Perthshire SNP MP Pete Wishart said that communities were “rightly angry at this betrayal from this Tory council.”
He said: “These capital investment plans are set to take the council through to 2025 and it is essential for Perthshire that we get it right.
“Any mistakes at this stage could mean that the city and wider county could suffer from a serious lack of modern infrastructure going forward. Plans such as these take years to come to fruition and if the Tory administration take their eye off the ball now, Perthshire residents could be paying for it for years to come.”
