Opening of £71m Peterhead school campus faces further setback

The opening of a £71m school campus in Peterhead is facing another delay after a contractor pulled out of the project.

Aberdeenshire Council had hoped to open the Peterhead Community Campus in 2026 to replace the town’s academy, two primary schools and a special education school.

The already delayed project now faces further setbacks after preferred contractor Robertson Construction withdrew.

The council said it remains committed to building the campus but that an earliest possible opening date could be January 2028.

A statement from Aberdeenshire Council said: “Peterhead Community Campus project is facing an additional delay, following communication from our preferred contractor Robertson Construction that they are withdrawing from the project.

“The project was already experiencing delays following issues with the required supply chain and market volatility.

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

“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.

“However, it is likely that the project completion will now be delayed until January 2028 at the earliest.”

A spokesperson for Robertson Construction, said: “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.”