Dundee’s education convener has said it was impossible for the council to commit to building more new schools beyond those already programmed because of the difficult financial climate.
“Councillor Bidwell made an issue out of extending and refurbishing Barnhill School. I know there is a lot of pressure on that school because of the new housing in the area. We will deal with that school but we have all of Dundee’s schools to look after.”
The contract for the construction of the new west end school has been awarded to Robertson Construction of Aberdeen, whose bid of £7.69m was the lowest of three tenders received.
Allowances of £1.9m for various professional fees, services, studies and contingencies have been added, giving a total of £9.6m.
Director of education Jim Collins, in answer to a question from west end Liberal Democrat councillor Fraser Macpherson, said he was confident that, given a fair wind, the timescale for the project can be met.
SNP councillor Jim Barrie said that, as someone who served the Logie area, he was glad something was being done.
Photo used under Creative Commons licence courtesy of Flickr user eriwst.
Councillor Liz Fordyce was responding to comments made at an education committee meeting by Labour opponent Laurie Bidwell, who expressed concern that “the cupboard is bare” after the new school projects already approved.
Work on the new £9.6m shared campus school to serve the west end will start this summer.
St Joseph’s RC and Park Place primaries are coming together on the site of the former Logie Secondary School off Blackness Road, which has been transferred to the council by the Al Maktoum Institute.
The project is due to be completed in the autumn of next year.
Another campus at Balgarthno Place shared by St Clements RC and the merged Lochee/Charleston Primaries costing £10m will also be built, as will a similar development involving Whitfield and Newfield Primaries off Summerfield Avenue.
Councillor Bidwell said the west end school was a milestone in the capital plan of the former Labour-led administration. He was delighted it had come to fruition.
However, he questioned the progress being made to replace Harris Academy and extend and refurbish Barnhill Primary, and he believed not enough was being done to improve the overall quality of school buildings in the city.
He added, “I am concerned that there is a poverty of ambition about improving the school estate.”
SNP finance spokesman Willie Sawers pointed out capital spending plans had been agreed by the whole council, and Mrs Fordyce said she could not speculate about the future, adding, “I’m not trying to look into a crystal ball.”
Expanding on these comments, she said her opponent was correct in highlighting the west end school, and the other new schools agreed, were conceived in the time of the former administration but they were approved at the time by all 29 councillors, including her own group.
She continued, “We as the SNP administration are very pleased to see through these schemes to implementation, which is happening now.2013 project”The replacement for Harris Academy will happen because we have been promised the money by the Scottish Government and that project will start in 2013.
“But since 2009 the financial constraints that we have been operating under have been considerable. This has affected the whole world and not just in Scotland.
“Okay, we have plans in the pipeline which we have committed to but we can’t go beyond that at the present time because of the financial climate, which is horrific. We are not going to raise hopes which we might not be able to deliver.
“The focus will be on implementing the plans that have been agreed the schools in the west end and at Balgarthno and Whitfield, see that the new Harris Academy is built, and ensuring that the rest of our schools are wind and watertight and in good condition for the education of our children.
“There has already been considerable investment in our schools a number of new primaries and secondaries were built in recent years and we have to see that these and our other schools are well maintained.
Continued…