A senior councillor has voiced concern that the new kitchen at the £60m Maybole Campus won't be able to cater for pupils at rural schools in the Carrick area - despite the campus being barely half full when it opened.

Meals for rural schools in the area are currently prepared at Cairn Primary, one of the schools that has merged into the new campus.

However, the campus will not be able to take over production of meals outwith the schools it directly serves.

Councillor William Grant, one of three representatives for the Maybole, North Carrick and Coylton ward, who also leads the authority's SNP group, said that while he was confident the campus would be a ‘wonderful place’ for the pupils of the old Carrick Academy and Gardenrose, Cairn and St Cuthbert’s Primaries to learn, he had major concerns.

And he said he was shocked that no cabinet members questioned the fact that the new build didn’t have greater kitchen capacity when it was raised during a report into the future of the empty schools being left behind last week.

The official capacity of the new campus is 1,370.

However, the combined 2022/23 school roll for the four schools moving into the new building was 714.

Despite only being at half capacity, officers say the campus cannot cater for the 169 pupils at Crosshill, Minishant, Maidens, Fisherton and Straiton primary schools - all of them served by the Cairn kitchen.

It stated: “The Maybole Community Campus has capacity to provide catering requirements for the four schools that it will replace, but it does not have sufficient capacity to accommodate catering requirements currently undertaken at Cairn Primary.”

Officers had recommended the council's cabinet agree to maintain the catering facility at Cairn Primary while the potential for the site to be used for council housing is considered.

The report also stated that the council’s facilities management service was interested the potential of setting up a centralised catering unit at the St Cuthbert’s Primary site.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service asked South Ayrshire Council to explain why the new campus could not accommodate the rural schools, despite the potential school roll being double the current number.

They initially responded: “Facilities management is currently in the middle of a full service review where the delivery of the catering service is being considered strategically across South Ayrshire.

"Crosshill, Straiton, Minishant, Maidens and Fisherton Primary Schools will continue to be serviced from Cairn Primary in the short to medium term while the service undertakes its review.

“Capacity requirement is calculated by the pupil roll, however factors such as preparation space, fridge/freezer storage, staff welfare space and medical dietary requirements must be taken into consideration.

"School rolls are currently projected to decrease over the coming years.”

However, when asked whether this meant that the new kitchen was already operating at its upper capacity, and whether any of the other factors beyond the number of pupils had impacted the decision, they would only say that they were reviewing all ‘distribution kitchens’ due to the expansion of free school meals to primary six and seven pupils, and the increasing demand for special dietary requirements across its schools.

“The current distribution from Cairn Primary is being considered as part of this strategic approach," the spokesperson added.

They also said that potential housing developments in the campus catchment area could bring in an additional 220 or more primary pupils and 140 or more secondary pupils, although this would still be considerably lower than the stated capacity.

Councillor Grant said the answers had not given him confidence that there was capacity should the school roll increase.

He said: “If we have built a campus that doesn’t have the capacity, then it has let us down.

“Are we saying that we have built a campus with a kitchen that doesn’t have the capacity?

“I was really surprised that no questions were asked about that at cabinet. That was the most important part of it and it is a question I am going to keep asking.”