Several members of the Isle of Wight council Executive last night (Tuesday) expressed their concerns at the lack of precise detail in relation to the paper presented by member for Children’s Services, Cllr Richard Priest, on Cowes Enterprise College.
The paper, as reported last week, sought to gain approval from Executive members to commit to spending up to £9m on completion and repairs to Cowes Enterprise College.
Estimates not precise enough
Cllrs Stubbings, Bacon, Jordan and Hillard all expressed their concerns at the estimates for the work.
Deputy leader, Cllr Stubbings, highlighted the range of estimates given for essential completion and statutory works being somewhere between £3.4 million to £4.1 million.
He and others agreed the range (£700,000) was far too wide and with the £28m funding gap in mind, they needed more precise figures before committing to the work.
Bacon: “Too far, too fast”
Cllr Bacon added that although he supported the completion of the school project, he questioned whether the council were moving “too far, too fast”.
After almost an hour of debate, with several amendments suggested, it was agreed by Executive members that the decision to commit to the large spends would be deferred until more precise estimates were available.
Utilise existing budget for demolition
In the meantime, funds the council have available to them from the original grant – around £1.5m remaining – would be used to go ahead with the demolition of the old school buildings and essential repairs needed at the new school.
“Moving forward”
The final amendment was agreed as follows:
The existing budget allocation be utilised to progress the project by carrying out the highest priority demolition works and the design works to prepare for project completion. For the avoidance of doubt, not to let the contracts for these works.
However:
- The Education Funding Agency (EFA) is formally requested to provide additional capital funding to enable the project to be completed
- The decision to allocate further funds be deferred until the current investigations and surveys are completed and therefore more information on the likely cost is available. At that time, this decision be brought forward to the Executive and Full Council as soon as possible.
Dave Burbage, the Managing Director of the Isle of Wight council, reminded members that some of the £1.5m would need to be earmarked in relation to the possible legal action with the developer’s administrators.
All members voted in favour of the amended proposal. Papers for the original amendment can be found below. Click on the full screen icon to see larger version.
