Teddington School Rebuild To Go Ahead, Despite 12% Cost Rise

10.32.31am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 10th Sep 2008

• THE project to rebuild Teddington School is set to get the go-ahead on Wednesday night from the Council's Liberal Democrat Cabinet, despite an increase in the cost of the scheme.

Massive inflation in the civil engineering industry, due to economic conditions over the past year, has meant that the cost of the project has risen by £4 million (or 13 %) over the original budget. The Government is contributing £25 million towards the total cost of the project, which is now £37 million. Despite the increase, the cost is still considered by the Council's independent cost consultants to be good value for money compared to similar school projects; the increase is in line with industry figures across the civil engineering sector. In particular, the last few months have seen large rises in material and fuel costs. The Council has spent the summer locked in negotiations with the contractor, Mace Plus Ltd, after it became clear that the cost was rising above the originally agreed £33 million budget. Once the contract has been agreed by Cabinet, work should start on the school, in Broom Road, within weeks.

Cllr Stephen Knight, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Resources said: "The new Teddington School building will provide a state-of-the-art learning environment for future generations of local young people in a highly sustainable low-energy building. This is a large and complicated project that was always going to be difficult, but we have a commitment to deliver this scheme for the benefit of the borough's young people and that continues to be our priority. We are clearly frustrated by the extent of cost rises and senior officers have been working extremely hard over the summer to keep the cost increases to a minimum.

The Conservative opposition may attack us for pressing on with this project; they said at the outset that they wouldn't have invested any Council money in the scheme, but the Liberal Democrats believe that it is worth investing in the education of our young people and the £25 million government grant offers a once in a generation opportunity for a brand new school."

"We were elected two years ago on a platform of greater investment in local schools and specifically to improve our secondary schools. This project is a vital part of that commitment, as is our commitment to bring a further £80 million investment into three other local secondary schools through the government's Academies initiative. If we were to give up as soon as the going got tough, then that commitment wouldn't have meant much."