Multi-school campus remains shut due to heating problems

A multi-school campus that includes four schools is to remain closed until next week due to problems with heating.

East Ayrshire Council announced earlier that the Robert Burns Academy based at the £69m Barony Campus in Cumnock would not be able to open at all this week because of flooding damage.

On Wednesday, the local authority said that the rest of the campus – the biggest capital project ever undertaken by the council – would now remain shut until Monday because of “ongoing instability” with the heating there.

The campus includes Lochnorris Primary School, Hillside School and Cherry Trees Early Childhood Centre.

Pupils at Robert Burns Academy are being offered online work for the rest of the week.

East Ayrshire Council said in a social media post: “Following consideration of our duty of care to all children and young people, the difficult decision has been taken to keep Hillside School, Lochnorris Primary and SLC, and Cherry Trees ECC closed for the remainder of this week.

“The council had been very hopeful that the campus would partially open on 8 January, however, due to ongoing instability of heating systems, this will not be possible. Engineers and a number of contractors are onsite addressing these issues.

“Multi-service meetings continue to take place daily at Barony campus. A further update will be provided to parents and carers on Friday 9 January. The council anticipates that the full campus will reopen on Monday 12 January.”

The facility opened six years ago and caters for about 2,500 pupils in total.

When it opened, it was described as having state-of-the-art facilities with a focus on the health and wellbeing for pupils.

East Ayrshire Council said earlier this week that early investigations into the flooding at the Robert Burns Academy suggested an air handling unit on the roof of the building had failed and resulted in flooding.