Council reveals estimated cost of damage to Newtown Primary School following 'deliberate' fire
Last updated 20th Aug 2026
The cost of the clean-up at Newtown Primary School following last month's fire is estimated to be in the region of almost a quarter of a million pounds.
Councillors this morning (Thursday) were told of damage to part of the roof and external canopy, as well as some internal areas.
But officials revealed there's no evidence of any major structural failure.
John Curry is the local authority's Director of Infrastructure and Environment. He said: "What we have experienced challenges with... is in relation to smoke damage and how the smoke has penetrated through the building itself.
“It’s generally an open building and the doors in school were open as well, so that’s allowed smoke to penetrate into the building itself.
“That means that a lot of the soft furnishings and fabrics will have to be removed and stripped out and replaced.
“It also means a lot of the contents that were there may not be fully able to be restored or kept.
"The initial assessment from the loss adjuster is the damage to the school is in the region of ÂŁ240,000."
But he added: "That cost excludes any of the costs that we've had to temporarily accommodate the children in this building."
Temporary classrooms have been set up for pupils at the nearby council headquarters to allow lessons to continue this week, following the summer holidays.
And children are not expected to be able to return to the Sprouston Road school until the New Year.
Nursery children are also having to be bussed nine miles to Earlston each day.
Mr Curry continued: "Those areas closest to where the fire was are beyond economic repair and will require removal and replacement, but that work is currently being scoped out. So all in all, whilst we've had quite significant damage to the building, it's not as bad as it could have been.
"We're now working through a really tight programme in cleaning the building first, then restoring and remediating those damaged elements. That will involve the replacement of some soft furnishings, fabrics, as well as the external envelope as well.
"In addition to that, we are reviewing the fire safety actions across the council, just to make sure that there are no outstanding actions that aren't being addressed, and if there are, we're going to get on top of that... to try and further reduce risk of any other damages to buildings in the future."
Councillors praised local authority staff for their speed at setting up temporary classrooms and keeping any disruption to children's education to a minimum - with Kelso councillor Simon Mountford giving the council's estates team "full marks" for its response.
A number of teams also had to decant from their desks, including bereavement services, legal, finance and customer services staff.
Selkirkshire councillor Leagh Douglas said: "All of them had to come together in super fast time and deliver what is just an amazing outcome."
But she admitted it has been a stressful time for the local community.
"I have watched these families transform from anxiety, anger (and) frustration to just being totally overwhelmed and delighted with the outcome," she said.
"When we were in HQ and all the parents were invited in (for a tour of the temporary classrooms), one parent chose to speak up at the end and said: 'I'm going to be honest with you and say: I thought this was going to be a disaster, and I cannot believe how positive this is'."
A teenage boy has been reported in connection with the fire on July 25th, which is being treated as "deliberate".
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