Following a resolution at last week’s Cabinet meeting, we learnt that new schools’ Project Director at the Isle of Wight Council, Janet Newton, will make the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) funding bid by the end of January.
Questions have in the past been posed as to whether the monies will be available from central Government to fund the alteration to school buildings that would be needed to implement the Isle of Wight Council’s reorganisation of the Island’s schools.
One of the main question marks was over the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) funding and if the current government would continue to fund BSF.
At the time, about a year ago, Cllr Alan Wells (then Cabinet member for schools) dismissed the concerns as “speculation”.
To counter the possibility of the BSF funding being pulled, the IWC made provisions in their budget to carry out work to the primary schools, but it could still turn out that this money won’t need to be used for this.
Decisions at Cabinet
At the Cabinet meeting last week it was announced that the government had confirmed that they would be extending the scheme through 2010 and into 2011.
The Island stands within the next top thirty local authorities to bring forward their proposal.
Last Tuesday the IWC Cabinet resolved to put forward the bid by the end of the January.
Janet Newton – much funding experience
Lots of this will be down to Janet Newton – who has recently joined the council as Project Director for schools reorganisation and building schools – who has extensive experience in raising similar funding for other authorities around the country.
Speaking to Steve Beynon, IWC Chief Exec, after the meeting, he told us that if the bid is successful, the renovations and refurbishment of the school can be done in a much shorter timescale, thus minimising any potential disruption.
Have a listen to Steve Beynon, IWC Chief Exec explaining it after the meeting …
[audio:http://otw-audio.s3.amazonaws.com/2010-01-19-steve-beynon-cabinet-bsf-extended.mp3]
