SCOTTISH Borders Council has started to push ahead with preliminary survey works at the new Galashiels Community Campus site just a week after planning approval was agreed – and while it still awaits the outcome of a legal challenge.

On Monday officers moved onto the site, which controversially incorporates part of the town’s Scott Park, to launch a programme of further surveys in preparation for construction to start on the replacement of Galashiels Academy.

A spokesperson for Scottish Borders Council said: “Starting on Monday (September 12), two days of topsoil sampling will be carried out within the grounds of Galashiels Academy and neighbouring Scott Park.

“Further preparation works are also scheduled for this summer, including localised trial pits and excavations to identify a series of unknown utility services within the vicinity of the existing Academy.”

It was last Monday, September 5, that members of the council’s Planning and Building Standards Committee unanimously endorsed the two-storey school which is to incorporate improved sports facilities and a brand new swimming pool.

But the plan has angered some who oppose the loss of “treasured green space” in Scott Park. That opposition led to the formation of the Friends of Scott Park group.

The council has counter-argued that the plan would ultimately open up more parkland for use.

The aim is for construction on the school to start in the summer of 2023 with completion in 2025, at which point the existing Galashiels Academy will be demolished.

However, that time-scale is open to challenge after the Friends of Scott Park group asked Scottish Government to call in the plans, a decision on which is awaited.

That move has alarmed Scottish Borders Council leader, Galashiels councillor Euan Jardine, who fears the project could be delayed by more than a year by the opposition, with the condition of the current school rated as “poor” in a recent study.