By Stewart Ross

THE POWERFUL Emblem consortium has won the £63 million contract to build eight new schools in Fife.

The ambitious project—Expanding Horizons—is already behind schedule due to a fall-out between Fife Council and construction giant Jarvis, which was the original preferred bidder.

What exactly soured the major public-private partnership deal was kept confidential as both sides endeavoured to disengage as gracefully as possible to lessen delay and expense.

The deal should have been signed at the end of last July, with phased construction completed this year, but now the council says it hopes to have all contracts signed by September and the last of the schools finished by 2007.

Emblem was always amongst the front-runners for the prestigious project and comprises Miller Construction, facilities management firm FES, Halifax Bank of Scotland and PFI Infrastructure Finance Ltd.

Phil McVey, bid manager for Emblem, said, “We are delighted to have been selected for the Fife schools project.

“We are looking forward to delivering first-class education facilities to Fife which will benefit the local community and provide schools to complement 21st century education.”

Fife Council’s policy and resources committee made the decision, and committee chairwoman Councillor Anne McGovern said yesterday that Emblem’s appointment marks “an important step” towards plans to deliver new schools and community facilities for Fife.

“Emblem submitted a tender to deliver the facilities for which planning permission has already been obtained,” she said.

“We are currently in detailed discussions with Emblem to achieve agreement on the legal and commercial terms of the deal.

“Satisfactory resolution of these issues will be key to our ability to award the contact to the consortium and will in turn drive the timescales for commencement of construction work.

“At this stage, we expect to be able to sign the contact with Emblem before the end of September and anticipate the programme for the opening of schools would be as follows:

“Strathallan, Kirkcaldy— October next year; Fair Isle, Kirkcaldy—October next year; Inverkeithing—October next year; Dover Heights, Dunfermline—October next year; St Columba’s, Cupar—December next year; Oakley Campus— December next year; Kennoway—December next year; Duloch Park, Dunfermline—March 2007.”