Pupils, parents and grandparents have marched through a Borders town to show their frustration over further delays to plans for a new primary school.

About £15m was first earmarked for a replacement primary for Eyemouth in 2015 after education officers conceded the current building was not fit for purpose.

Disagreements over the location of the new school, the Covid pandemic and, more recently, a refusal by Scottish Borders Council (SBC) to factor in inflation to the building costs has hindered any progress.

The council said it was committed to using "informed discussion and detailed feedback" to decide on the way forward.

Rev Stephen Bender, whose children were educated in Eyemouth, has campaigned for action.

He said: "Frustration is absolutely the right word to use and and it's long, long-term frustration.

"We are on the farthest reaches of the Scottish Borders and the community feels that they're often the last to be considered for anything and judging from this project alone I think those concerns are certainly justified."

Eyemouth was one of three Borders towns to receive a new high school under controversial Private Finance Initiative (PFI) funding in 2009.

Attention in the town soon switched to a replacement primary school with the project being included in SBC's 2015 budget.

Inspections at the time revealed the Coldingham Road school was in a "poor condition" with £15m being earmarked for the project.

More recent reports have condemned the building as "not fit for purpose".

To keep costs within the original price tag, last year education officials proposed creating a community campus within the town's high school to cater for all pupils.

Rev Bender added: "Rather than listening to what parents want they took us by surprise by suggesting we just basically take the existing primary school and shove all the pupils into the high school building.

"It's already above the 500 capacity for which it was originally built and now they want to take an additional 300 or 400 students and shove them into the third floor building.

"It's fraught with potential problems and safety concerns."

SBC abandoned the co-location proposals just before Christmas and started a fresh consultation at the start of this year.

At a meeting in the spring it was agreed to seek additional funding for a new-build primary while also continuing to progress the co-location campus model as an alternative proposal.

More than £8m in this year's local authority budget for starting Eyemouth Primary replacement work has now been pushed back into the 2027/28 capital spending plans.

Grandparent Christine Mutch is angry about the continued delays.

She said: "They have wasted tens if not hundreds of thousands of pounds coming out with schemes that anyone locally can tell them are just not workable.

"And it's not that we want anything better than any other community - they've built schools in Jedburgh, Galashiels, Earlston and Peebles - while we've been waiting on ours.

"We just need something that will be right for all of the pupils of Eyemouth to have the space to grow."

Over the past few weeks council officers have met with community leaders to provide updates on the current two primary school options.

A spokesperson for SBC said: "Our focus is on targeted engagement that supports informed discussion and detailed feedback.

"Council agreed that both options should continue through further design, cost, and programme development to better understand their risks, affordability, and deliverability.

"The alternative new build proposal is the primary focus of this stage, reflecting community feedback and the evidence gathered to date.

"However, no final decision has been taken on a preferred solution, construction contract, or additional capital funding."

It is expected that a final decision on whether Eyemouth is to get a new build school or a shared community campus will be decided by councillors later this year.

With a replacement nursery being built at the current primary school site, parents believe the shared campus will make drop-offs and pick-ups almost impossible for some of them.

Mum Sarah Duncan said: "It would be over a mile between the nursery and the campus - the distance we have just walked today.

"When you have children in the nursery and the primary school there will be no time to get from one to the other - even if you are driving them it takes some time due to the school traffic.

"We have a lot of new houses being built in Eyemouth with more families looking for school places - why can't the council just build us a new school?".