Fresh bid pondered for cash to replace ageing classrooms

Education Secretary Michael Gove axed the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme last year leading to 82 rebuilding projects across Yorkshire – including 22 in Kirklees – being cancelled.

Kirklees Council leader Mehboob Khan previously told the Yorkshire Post that between £450m and £500m would have been invested.

The coalition Government has since introduced a central fund, which has been set up to help schools most in need of new facilities.

Tomorrow senior councillors in Kirklees will meet to decide whether or not to apply for support from a new fund, the Department for Education’s Priority Schools Building Programme (PSBP).

A report to members of the council’s cabinet committee says: “A number of Kirklees schools occupy buildings that have significant condition needs and which are no longer suitable for delivery of a modern curriculum.

“The provision of extensive new build accommodation would have a range of positive impacts on teaching and learning.”

Kirklees was one of six education authorities in the region affected by the cuts along with Bradford, Doncaster, Rotherham, North East Lincolnshire and Wakefield. In total more than £1bn of planned funding for rebuilding schools in Yorkshire was cancelled.

BSF was launched by the last Labour Government with the aim of rebuilding or refurbishing every secondary school in the country.

It was scrapped by the coalition who claimed the programme had been hampered by delays and bureaucracy.

The report to members of the council’s cabinet committee says that the PSBP scheme will be delivered by the Private Finiance Initiative (PFI).

It raises issues about the cost of the bid to the local authority adding: “It is expected that there will be significant revenue cost to the council should we submit a successful bid.”

However, the report adds: “Given the many condition, suitability and organisational needs that schools have in Kirklees, a failure to bid would not be viewed well in the schools’ community and there may be difficult conversations required with schools that would have expected to have been part of the LA’s bid.”

If councillors do decide to go-ahead the report outlines some of the schools that may qualify for help under the Government scheme. They include Mount Pleasant Infant Nursery & Junior School, in Mount Pleasant, Huddersfield.

Here the school’s roll number is increasing year on year due to rising birth rates, leading to a need to increase the school’s capacity from 490 to 630.

Whitcliffe Mount, a specialist business and enterprise college, in Cleckheaton, is another centre of learning that could benefit if councillors give the go-ahead for council officers to put in a bid for cash.

Its numbers are expected to rise significantly in September next year to around 1,750-1,780, although they are then predicted to fall back gradually over the next three to four years. Members will also be asked to indicate which school bids they support.

The report says there are a number of educational benefits to the scheme including providing an effective learning environment that stimulates an interest in education and offering buildings that maximise resources for learning, rather than pouring them into running and maintaining buildings.

Nationally the programme is valued at £1-£3bn, which will provide 100-300 new or rebuilt primary, secondary and special schools and sixth form and alternative provision. Any bids from local authorities need to be submitted by October 14.