EVERY effort will be made to open Warrington’s newest primary school on time – despite the school having to be increased in size because of an unexpected rise in demand for places.
A rising birth rate, plus the number of people buying homes at the Chapelford Urban Village, has means the new school to be built there will have to be of two-form entry and not one-form as originally planned.
This has resulted in the cost soaring by £900,000 to around £4.9 million and the opening date possibly slipping back to April 2013 instead of October next year as originally intended.
But Cllr Colin Froggatt (pictured), the borough council’s executive member for education has pledged that every effort will be made to keep to the original timescale.
He told the council’s executive board: “We hope to open the new school by October 2012 or even earlier if possible.”
The school will also replace the existing Sycamore Lane Primary, which has poor quality accommodation.
The board has chosen a contractor from a shortlist of five. The project will be funded by Government grant of £2 million, borrowing of £2 million and a Children and Young People’s Services grant of £900,000.
Extensive consultation has taken place with the existing school, parents, other members of the public, local councillors and Chapelford developer David Wilson Homes to ensure the project measures up to their wish for a modern school with state-of-the-art facilities.
Bid to get school open on time
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Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
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Is this unexpected rise in demand actual or projected ? Just wondered as it went the other way over here when the need for a new school with more places was voiced. Anyway, there is no reason at all why this new school couldn’t be built and opened on time as the brand new 2 form of entry school in Stockton Heath only took about 8 months to build and that wasn’t on a new site so was a tad harder to do although it did cost a lot more than they expected and certainly more than £4.9 million. I wonder if they could use the same designs and plans to speed this one through the planning stage if it’s not already been approved. Makes sense to me.