Morrison Construction has reached agreement on the £48.5 million project to deliver a school and community campus on the Hub North Scotland Ltd contract with The Highland Council.

Designed by Ryder Architecture, the Wick Campus project will see a new community campus for Wick incorporating replacements for the existing Wick High School, a replacement Primary School (Newton Park Primary School) for the existing South Primary School and Pulteneytown Academy Primary School. The Campus will also replace the existing community swimming pool and community library facilities with new provision.

The Wick Campus project is part of the Scottish Government ‘Scotland’s Schools for the Future programme’, and the council welcomed the significant financial and project support from Scottish Government and the Scottish Futures Trust which has allowed the project to progress.

Councillor Alasdair Christie, chairman of The Highland Council’s education, children and adult services committee said: “I am very pleased that the Wick Campus contract has now been signed off and the community can look forward to the new facilities being available. This is another major milestone in the council’s programme of school building.”

Caithness civic leader Councillor Gail Ross added: “I welcome the news about the Campus project, which when added to the Noss Primary School and council office projects represents very significant investment in the town.

“This is a great relief to the parents and the wider community in East Caithness. The campus has been a long time coming and finally we can move forward to seeing more action on site. I would like to thank all our staff that have worked really hard on reaching this stage.”

In addition, Galliford Try will invest £1.6m in funding for the project and will provide ongoing hard facilities maintenance and lifecycle management services in a contract worth approximately £13m over the 25 year concession period.

Galliford Try executive chairman Greg Fitzgerald said: “We are delighted to have reached agreement with our partners at Hub North Scotland and the Highland Council on such an important project. Morrison Construction has a proven track record in providing public sector facilities across Scotland and we look forward to working with Hub North Scotland and the Highland Council to provide the high quality school and community facilities that the local community in Wick deserves.”

Highland Council said the project is due to complete in September 2016.