02 July 2002

£14M BID TO REBUILD SCHOOL

COUNCILLORS will be told tomorrow Boldon School should be demolished and replaced with state-of-the-art facilities.

South Tyneside Council chiefs will be told £13.8m previously earmarked to refurbish four schools should now be spent on knocking down and redeveloping the Boldon Colliery complex.
The move follows the council's failure to secure the £28m needed to complete its plans to revamp Whitburn, Boldon, Brinkburn and Harton comprehensive schools.
Education chiefs had already secured almost £14m of controversial private finance initiative (PFI) credits, which are a way of funding large projects without using tax payers' money.
Using PFI credits allows councils to develop new public sector buildings. They are designed, upgraded, financed and operated by a private sector consortium for a set number of years. At the end of that period, control of the schools would revert back to the public sector.
Originally, council leaders had hoped a successful PFI bid would cover all repairs, but inspections showed more funding was needed.
Now, Barbara Hughes, executive director of lifelong learning and leisure, and Brian Welsh, the council's director of finance, are to ask borough leaders to spend the cash on Boldon School and submit a new bid for funds to rebuild and refurbish Whitburn, Brinkburn, Harton and King George V schools.
If the recommendations are backed, a bid for the second tranche of funding will be submitted in December and new plans drawn up to use the £13.8m already secured to rebuild the school at Boldon.
However, Merv Butler, senior branch secretary of public sector union Unison said members remained opposed to the plans.
"We believe the council should be able to borrow money itself and not bring in the private sector. We will be seeking agreement with the authority to prevent the transfer of members to the private sector, or protect the terms and conditions of members for the lifetime of the contract, as has happened in Newcastle."