Scottish Government Ministers have confirmed that they will not be calling in the council’s decision to close Campsie View and Merkland Schools and to build the new school.

The council had agreed to the project in November and then notified the Scottish Government, as required by the Schools Consultation Act 2010. Under the 2010 Act, ministers are required to decide within eight weeks if the decision will be called in for review; this period expired last week.

Joint council leader Vaughan Moody said: “This consent to close Campsie View and Merkland schools is the next step towards the delivery of a much needed new Additional Support Needs school for the area. We were required to notify Scottish Ministers of our Council decision back in November, and their confirmation that they will not be calling in our decision means we can now progress its implementation to deliver a new fit for purpose ASN school to meet our future needs.

“This confirmation from Scottish Ministers is consistent with the independent assessment of the report on our consultation by Education Scotland, who found the council to have consulted appropriately and believed our proposal to be justified and to have educational benefit.”

Joint council leader Andrew Polson added: “When we took the decision to proceed with our proposals back in November, we recognised that the responses from our school communities were overwhelmingly in support of the proposal, but that there were concerns raised about the impact of the proposed new school in the Waterside community.  We confirmed then and reiterate now, that we are absolutely committed to ensuring that the impact will be a positive one and the new school and wider development of the Waterside site will provide additional facilities for the community to access.”

The implementation plans will now be progressed, including community engagement as the design for the new school is developed and contractors appointed for its delivery.