It was originally anticipated that the new community campus would be complete by mid-2026.

However, Aberdeenshire Council has revealed the project will now be delayed until January 2028 “at the earliest”.

A local authority spokesperson said: “The project was already experiencing delays following issues with the required supply chain and market volatility.

“The withdrawal of Robertson as preferred contractor means that further work is required to reconsider options to progress the project.”

Designs for the new campus were submitted in March 2023, and a consultation was launched on the plans ahead of the detailed submission in October.

Leading the design are jmarchitects while Faithful+Gould are the project management consultants undertaking the day-to-day delivery of the project.

The first phase of the project will see the development of replacement facilities for the existing Peterhead Academy, Anna Ritchie, Dales Park and Meethill schools, all set within a community campus.

Alongside this, the council has committed to providing modern leisure, sport and community facilities on the existing Academy site. This will be delivered as phase two of the project and will include a swimming pool, fitness suite, theatre and community spaces.

In the update, the council said it was still committed to pressing ahead.

The spokesperson added: “A further update will be provided following engagement with the construction sector on the best way to proceed, likely costs and timescales.

“Aberdeenshire Council remains committed to building a new community campus for Peterhead.”

A spokesperson for Robertson Construction told Scottish Construction Now: “Robertson has a close working relationship with Aberdeenshire Council and has been delivering projects on its behalf for many years, however, following a lengthy period of collaborative value engineering involving all stakeholders, we have taken the difficult decision to withdraw from the Peterhead Community Campus project.

“As a responsible business, we need to ensure that any project that we undertake meets certain criteria for our customers, ourselves, and our supply chain members to achieve successful project outcomes.

“Aberdeenshire Council remains an important customer and we look forward to working with them again in the future.”