Two new schools will be built by April 2017 after Scottish Borders Council agreed to put significant funds towards replacing Broomlands Primary in Kelso and Langlee Primary in Galashiels.

The funding is a result of the Scottish Government’s decision to allocate an additional £330 million to the Scotland’s Schools for the Future programme.

As a consequence of Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) increasing its funding contribution from 66 per cent of the cost of Kelso High School to 100 per cent, this has released approximately £6.4m of the council’s own capital funds which will allow the acceleration of the capital investment programme to deliver the two new schools.

Both Broomlands and Langlee primaries had been scheduled for works between 2017 and 2021, but this will now be brought forward as a result of the funding commitment.

Both new schools will be built on the existing sites, but appropriate measures will be put in place to minimise disruption for pupils and teachers.

Initial plans had scheduled completion between 2017 and 2021 however a condition of the funding is that the projects must be completed by April 2017.

Councillor Sandy Aitchison, executive member for education, said: “This is excellent news for the Borders, and for Kelso and Galashiels in particular. Our children and teachers deserve the best environment for teaching and learning that we can provide, and this financial backing will certainly help that.

“Obviously, accelerating these schools will also bring our other schemes further up the queue so that, I hope, other communities will benefit sooner than we previously thought or programmed.

“We have learnt a lot from the experience of the railway being built next to Stow Primary School and the mitigation measures required and this will help us with building these two new schools.”