News / Work starts on new Anderson next March
WORKMEN should be on site to start building a new secondary school in Lerwick in 12 months, local councillors have been told.
However Shetland Islands Council could still face a legal challenge from the contractor who lost out when it cancelled a contract to build a school in 2009 just hours before work was due to commence.
On Wednesday the government appointed company Hub North Scotland (HubCo) announced it has appointed Miller Construction Services Ltd as the lead contractor for the major building project.
Eighteen construction companies, including Shetland firms, have expressed an interest in working on the £36 million Anderson High School to be built next to the Clickimin Leisure Complex.
HubCo has said it will contact local firms over the next few days prior to organising a meet the buyer event at the end of April, adding that 80 per cent of the building work should be going out to tender.
Meanwhile Northern Ireland construction firm O’Hare & McGovern are considering a legal challenge, saying they had been promised an opportunity to tender for the new contract.
The firm had builders on site ready to start work in September 2009 when the council responded to public pressure by staging a dramatic last minute U-turn and switched sites to Clickimin.
Managing director Eamon O’Hare said: “We spent two years in Shetland trying to get a school built, and then the council decided they were on the wrong site.
“We got reimbursed for some costs, but we have a letter from the council saying if they changed to another site they would give us an opportunity to tender.
“Within days of that they were talking to HubCo, which was a procurement route that didn’t give us an opportunity to tender, so a letter from the council means nothing.
“We are devastated and considering our position, we are taking legal advice and we may take legal action.”
However Shetland Islands Council convener Malcolm Bell said the authority had recently terminated the contract with the Irish building firm and fulfilled all its legal liabilities.
“Since that time we have not heard from them, so I am surprised they have chosen today to raise this issue, but if O’Hare and McGovern take action then we will have to deal with it,” he said.
HubCo have appointed Miller Construction and four other contractors to work on six school building projects for six local authorities in the north of Scotland under the government’s Schools for the Future programme.
Other contractors appointed by HubCo to work on the Anderson High School and several other schools are:
• architect Gordon Murray of Ryder Architecture;
• Turner and Townsend as project managers, quantity surveyors and construction, design and management coordinator;
• technical advisor Sweett Group; and
• independent certifier Faithful & Gould.
Children’s services executive director Helen Budge said work was scheduled to begin on 31 March 2014 on a new school and a 100 bed hostel.
She said the school should be able to accommodate a proposed “hub and spoke” model for secondary education being proposed as part of the new Blueprint for Education redesign of the islands’ school estate.
The government is borrowing £24 million to contribute to the Anderson High School construction, with £12 million coming from council reserves.
HubCo will remain responsible for maintaining the building for 25 years in return for an annual fee to be paid by the local authority.
Councillors and officials have been visiting other secondary schools in Scotland to see what model would best suit the islands.
Budge said of all the schools they had visited, Eastwood High School in East Renfrewshire best reflected the needs in Shetland.
The new Anderson High School will be designed to accommodate 1,200 pupils, though it has been acknowledged that the hostel might need to be enlarged tocater for more than 100 pupils if junior high schools close under the Blueprint for Education.
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