SCHOOLS Plan May Have To Be Extended

Friday, 03 September 2010 |

COUNCIL officials want to plug an £8million gap in funding for Inverclyde’s school building programme by extending work by four years.

The plan to refurbish all primary schools is supposed to be completed in 2023 but under the new proposal would not be finished until 2027.

The problem with funding the programme has come about mainly because land values have fallen meaning the council will get less money than expected from the sale of vacant sites.

The District Valuer prepared a valuation of the site of the former Greenock High School and Glenburn School in Inverkip Road in May in connection with the sale of the site to the Scottish Prison Service.

The value is alot lower than had been expected and, as a result, a review has been carried out looking at all sites.

It has been found that smaller, less valuable sites (generally £1millon and under) have held their value well but the more valuable sites are worth less.

The Greenock High/Glenburn site is worth around £2million less than expected and Greenock Academy’s site is £2.2million less although St Stephen’s, Port Glasgow goes against the trend, increasing by £500,000.

The council will have around £8million less to spend on its school building programme.

This will mean that, although building work would be completed by 2023, the council would still be paying for it for another six years.

To solve the problem officials are recommending that the primary school refurbishment programme is stretched over a greater number of years, with the last school being completed in 2027 and the programme paid for by 2029.

The first primary school refurbishment is due to start in July 2013. The order in which the schools are done has not been decided yet. It will be based on the condition of the buildings.

Schools involved include the three primaries in Gourock – St Ninian’s, Gourock and Moorfoot; Ardgowan, Lady Alice, St Patrick’s and St Mary’s in Greenock; Inverkip and Kilmacolm.