Confidence has been expressed that negotiations over the purchase of a site for the planned new Kelso High School will soon see an agreement reached.
A pre-planning application for the new £14.8million secondary on a site in the town’s Angraflat Road has already been lodged by Scottish Borders Council.
Edinburgh-based Clarendon Planning & Development are agents for the site’s owners, the Duke of Roxburghe, Lord Ralph Kerr and the Ferniehirst Trust.
Back in April, Clarendon said negotiations between the landowners and council were “progressing positively”.
However, three months on and with no deal over the sale of the land yet reached, there are rumours the two parties are still some way off from reaching an agreement.
Asked to comment on the state of the negotiations, the local authority said it could not make any statement due to what it described as their “commercial sensitivity.” And quizzed for their views, Kelso’s three SBC councillors all said the matter was being left to local authority officers.
However, Councillor Simon Mountford (Con) was prepared to say that it was not unusual for there to be a mismatch between two positions when it came to such complicated negotiations.
“And I am confident an agreement will soon be reached which is acceptable to both parties,” he said.