05 March 2003

NEW SCHOOL BID TAKES NEXT STEP

PLANS for a new school at Boldon are expected to move a step closer tonight when councillors are shown a business plan of how it would be funded.

Members of South Tyneside Council's ruling Labour cabinet are to be presented with a financial analysis designed to convince education and treasury bosses in London that plans to rebuild the village secondary school using the controversial private finance initiative will work.
Councillors have long supported using private funds to rebuild some of the borough's schools, and agreed last June to use £13.8m of credits already secured to replace the existing school.
Eddie Campbell, head of strategy and resources, said the outline business case, which is to be presented at a private meeting tonight, is expected to be approved by Government bosses.
He said: "We think the business case is sound - we reckon there's been a fairly good job done."
Once it has been approved by the council's cabinet, the document will be forwarded to the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) for analysis ahead of a Treasury review of the plans.
If it is approved, education bosses in the borough will spend up to a year appointing a concessionaire - a private consortium - to design, build and run the school for a set number of years.
Mr Campbell added: "They will go over it with a fine-tooth comb - if they approve that, the PFI is approved and it's all systems go."
Work on the new school is expected to begin some time next summer and last for about 18 months.
PFI schemes are now one of the main ways of building new public sector buildings, but unions have criticised them as being a way of shutting out parties interested in the projects.
Despite the criticism, private finance initiatives have increased in popularity - now the number of bids outnumber resources by four to one.
Last year, South Tyneside Council failed to secure £28m to allow it to complete its plans to refurbish Whitburn, Boldon, Brinkburn and Harton Comprehensive schools.
It later dropped the bid, allocated the £13.8m of credits it had to Boldon School and is now pursuing a scheme which may see Whitburn School sold to the Church of England and rebuilt using cash only the Church can access.