Islanders raise £50,000 for school legal challenge

Residents on the Isle of Mull have raised £50,000 to fund a judicial review over the local council's decision on where to build a new school.

Argyll and Bute Council decided earlier this year to build the new £43m school campus close to the current high school in Tobermory.

Many parents wanted a more central location so that pupils in the south of the island would no longer have to travel by ferry to Oban for schooling and stay in hostels during the week.

In order for the legal challenge to proceed, campaigners needed to raise £50,000 in one month, but they managed to do it in a week.

A spokesperson for the Mull Campus Working Group said: "We had a month to get here, but thanks to the huge generosity of all our backers we did it in just a week.

"That in itself should send a loud message to the council - this community is not lying down, and we have the capacity and energy for the fight."

A judicial review is a type of legal case where a judge reviews the lawfulness of a decision or action made by a public authority.

A spokesperson for Argyll and Bute Council previously said they had been made aware of the proceedings.

The location of the island's only high school has long been a source of division on Mull.

Pupils living in the north go to the school in Tobermory, but the commute is more than 90 minutes for those living in the south, and most travel to Oban on the mainland, staying in hostels during the week.

Funding was secured in 2023 to build a "like-for-like" replacement school on the Isle of Mull to replace the depilated Tobermory High School, which also houses a primary and nursery school.

A number of sites where the new school could be built were identified across the island.

Campaigners argued for a split option, with a new secondary school to be built in a more central location such as Craignure, while keeping a primary school in Tobermory.

But the council said splitting the campus would cost the authority an extra £12m, and that any further delay could jeopardise promised Scottish government funding, This option would leave the island's most populated town, Tobermory, without a primary school.

Ultimately councillors voted to go ahead with building the new school in Tobermory, near to the existing school.

Campaigners launched a petition and held protests against the decision, and the issue has been debated at Holyrood.