MORE THAN £7M SPENT SO FAR ON STALLED NEWBUILD PROJECT
SIX years after it was first approved more than £7m has already been spent on Dromore's still non-existent new primary school.
According to the Southern Education and Library Board, some 255,000 has so far been spent on consultants' fees since the inception of the scheme; that's on top of the 6.82m paid for the site.
The figures come in a response - delayed over the holiday period - to a recent Leader article.
They coincide with news both that the proposed new primary school has finally won planning approval, and that the newbuild is not on Stormont Education Minister Caitriona Ruane's list - announced last week - of 14 school building projects set to go ahead thanks to a 13m capital allocation to her department as a result of the June Monitoring Round agreed by the Executive.
In mid-July The Leader reported the claims of one Dromore parent that publicity sourrounding the funding crisis facing Dromore Central's replacement school was obscuring other factors - regarding suitability of the site, problems with the plans and subsequent delays in obtaining planning permission - in the project's long delay.
Mrs. Lisa Saunders wanted to know how much money had been spent on the scheme during its years in the pipeline and, if funding for the school was 'ring-fenced', as earlier reported, where then had that cash gone?
With plans for the new school having to be revisited due to issues raised by the Rivers Agency, Mrs. Saunders asked why original plans appeared not to have taken into account the quality of the ground and drainage concerns.
She asked too why the need to raise the new school's floors by half a metre - as allowed by revised plans - had not been identified at the outset and, fearing that by the time the new school was built it might be full to capacity from the off, she wondered if population growth had been factored into the equation.
In response, an SELB spokesman said, "The site acquisition cost was 6.82million and consultants fees from the inception of the scheme currently amount to 255k, which includes initial costings for economic appraisals and Departmental approvals for the newbuild, site purchase, land surveys, civil and structural engineering investigations, and ongoing project management and work on the detailed design of the new school."
Regarding reports of "ring-fenced" funding, he said, "Funding for this type of project is provided by the Department of Education and in this case no funds were drawn down from DE because the Board was not in a position to utilise them immediately upon receipt as is generally required."
The spokesman insisted the original plans for the school, as submitted to Planning Service in April 2009, did include details of the culvert and site drainage, but the Planning Service, he said, asked for them to be made the subject of a separate application, while the need to raise the floor levels was "a new requirement from the Rivers' Agency which arose from its interpretation of recent guidance".
Regarding consideration of population growth in planning the new school, he said, "Analysing and taking account of demographic tends is an essential part of the planning for all school capital works and the detailed work which the SELB carries out in this field is second to none."
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Weather for Dromore
Tuesday 07 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 3 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 4 C to 5 C
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