Just before Christmas I was briefed on the cuts to the school building programme and the impact this is going to have on expansions such as at Alfred Sutton.
In brief the costs have gone up by 20% so we are now £9 million short on a £61 million budget.
It doesn’t look like the government is going to cough up so the council is cutting the program in various ways:
- Buildings will look the same but be built differently, so soft wood doors instead of hardwood, cheaper heating system. This saves about £2 million
- Raniket expansion has been put on hold saving £5 million
- The scope has been reduced of some projects. For example with Alfred Sutton the classrooms will go ahead as planned but some of the access changes may not go ahead until a few years down the track. This saves a further £2 million
No one is happy about cuts to their part of the programme. This is still all a fast moving situation. Revised drawings for parts of the programme which are further ahead like Alfred Sutton should be available sometime in January. Newtown primary isn’t as far ahead so drawings won’t be available till later in the year.
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