A PLANNED £2.6m refurbishment of a Port school must be treated as a ‘top priority’ in order to avoid the type of lengthy delays experienced elsewhere, council chiefs have been told.

Work at St John’s Primary in the town is scheduled to be completed by August next year — and local authority leader Stephen McCabe has made a plea for there to be no slippage on the date.

His call comes in the wake of problems experienced during the yet-to-be-completed £4.5 million upgrade and extension of Greenock’s Ardgowan Primary.

Cllr McCabe — who has previously made a public apology about an expected near year-long delay to that project — said: “It is important that St John’s pupils return home on time and that we hit our targets.

“We don’t want another Ardgowan Primary School situation.” The Telegraph told in January how education chiefs had initially hoped to have Ardgowan Primary ready for pupils and teachers by this summer only for complications to cause a hold up.

The project will not now be completed until Easter next year.

St John’s pupils have recently been decanted into the former St Stephen’s High School, making way for work to start following the return of tender documents.

Cllr McCabe told the education and communities committee: “I would urge officers to give this project the highest priority.” Meanwhile, preliminary work on refurbishing Kilmacolm Primary is continuing prior to an expected start date in the summer of next year.

Construction of a new-build St Patrick’s Primary is due to get underway at around the same time, with both projects targeted for completion by October 2016.

However, a report concerning St Patrick’s has warned that ‘tender prices are likely to outstrip general inflation’.

It said: “This may impact on the affordability model and will be monitored closely throughout the design stages.”