A FORMAL consultation on plans for a new £28million shared school campus in Faifley will begin at the end of this month – if councillors give their support.

Members of the education committee at West Dunbartonshire Council (WDC) will be asked next week to approve plans for a statutory consultation on plans to build a new facility to house Edinbarnet Primary, St Joseph’s Primary, the Auchnacraig and Lennox early learning and childcare centres, and the ‘Rainbow Base’ at St Josephs, for P1 pupils with additional learning needs and autistic spectrum disorders.

The new campus will be built on the site of St Joseph’s Primary after councillors gave their backing in June to officials’ recommendation that the Faifley Road site be chosen, despite concern that the plan could see too many facilities squeezed on to a single site.

As previously reported in the Post, WDC consulted the public on three other possible sites – the current home of Edinbarnet, the present Auchnacraig ELCC, and the Skypoint community centre on Lennox Drive.

But a report prepared for the committee in June concluded that the St Joseph’s site was the only realistic option for the campus.

The facility will be paid for using £10.44m from the council’s own capital programme and £18.42m from the Scottish Government.

If the consultation plan is approved by the committee on September 22, it will run from Thursday, September 30 to Wednesday, November 17.