Green light for new £12m Galashiels primary school

The three-storey school will have 14 classrooms, a nursery, an adjoining special needs centre and a sports hall.

There will also be a multi games area created in the landscaped grounds as well as a new 55-space car park.

The current 1960s building will be demolished to make way for the new school.

Although the designs for the building, which were revealed in August, were met with a mixed reaction there has been no formal objections against the plans.

Planning officer Carlos Clarke said: “The building is on three storeys, but would be set well down from the Melrose Road, framed by woodland to west and south, and set back from Langlee Drive just enough that it can be set within a relatively spacious parkland style arrangement.

“The scale of building is large but, in this setting, it is appropriate to its context.

“The applicants have set the building as far as reasonably practicable into the site in order to achieve this outcome.”

There had been delays with progressing the initial application after it was discovered that a resident’s garden had been included in the plans.

And a revised set of drawings had to be produced.

Mr Clarke added: “There was an error on the original landscape drawing that included an area of garden owned by neighbours.”

Work is scheduled to start early next year - and should be completed by summer 2017.