Last week’s County Press carried a letter from a former project manager at Isle of Wight council.
Matt Ford stated he was assigned to work on the £33.6m Cowes Enterprise College project from late autumn 2012, after two officers involved were suspended from duty. Those officers – Janet Newton and John Brocklehurst – were later exonerated of any wrong-doing in July 2013 and have since left the council.
In his letter, Matt claims the new school building “was, is and will be a money pit” and believes the current administration’s regime to “move on” is “hugely short-sighted”.
“Shortcomings of the project management approach”
No longer on the Island, but now working in Kuwait, Matt goes on in his letter to raise concerns over the “shortcomings of the project management approach”. He says the governance structure was “confused, with no clear, shared project vision”.
He claims the assertion made by Janet Newton through OnTheWight last month, that the building had received sign-off by Building Control in November 2012, was a “red herring and merely confirmed the building would not collapse on the pupils”.
Matt goes on to claim there was “limited or non-existent project and building documentation”, adding it was not only “extraordinary on a project of that scale”, but also “a recipe for disaster”.
Claims fiercely refuted
One of the former officers involved in the CEC project, Janet Newton, has been in touch with OnTheWight giving her response to the claims made by Matt Ford, saying he makes “some sweeping allegations based on little knowledge of the project”.
Janet told OnTheWight,
“I would suggest that many of the comments made by Matt Ford demonstrate a lack of detailed knowledge about the procurement, design development and implementation of this project.”
Setting our her experience in project managing large school projects, Janet said,
Prior to coming to the Isle of Wight in January 2010, I had been employed by Wigan Council and Lancashire County Council and was responsible for the delivery of twelve large secondary schools. These schools were delivered to time and budget.
“In addition, I successfully managed a £90 million per annum capital programme that delivered new primary schools and maintenance and improvement programmes to schools.”
“Robust project management”
Due to her schools buildings work with Lancashire, Janet says she was invited to take part in a Commons Select Committee,
“Robust project management ensured that the programmes of work were delivered in a timely manner and provided value for money. The delivery of the secondary school programmes were subject to Treasury Review, Department for Education scrutiny and Gateway Reviews by external assessors.
“The reviews all highlighted my strong project management and good stakeholder engagement at all levels. On the back of my successful work with Lancashire I was invited to participate in a Commons Select Committee that was examining the delivery of School building projects.
Delivery of Island projects
Going on to explain her involved with Isle of Wight-based projects, Janet said,
“Whilst on the Island I successfully delivered a complex programme of works that included new primary schools and over thirty refurbishment schemes, extensions, and relocation of mobile classrooms. The projects were all delivered to time and budget. I also ensured that over 78% of the spend was with Island firms.”
Short-sighted position of leadership
In his letter to the CP, Matt Ford adds,
“I have a small degree of sympathy for the two former officers.
“They were not solely to blame for this debacle and I find it rather tedious to see so many of the other stakeholders keen to wash their hands of responsibility fir their actions.”
Still no Inquiry
The Isle of Wight council remain of the view that documentation related to the project will not be made public.
Chair of the Scrutiny Committee, Cllr Geoff Lumley (Lab), has said his committee will not consider an Inquiry into the debacle unless secret papers were made public.
Matt said he would be “delighted to assist Cllr Lumley in his fresh impetus to carry out a structured investigation.”
Bound by confidentially agreement
Janet finished by telling OnTheWight,
“The Council has indicated that it does not wish to proceed with an Inquiry based upon full disclosure, it is therefore unreasonable for certain individuals and publications to make comments and statements about selected parts of the process and roles and responsibilities, when I and other people have no right to reply.”
Image: Nomadic Lass under CC BY 2.0
