News / Cleaver warns of high school disaster
Building a new £32 million Anderson High School in Lerwick could lead to financial disaster, according to a Shetland councillor.
North isles member Gary Cleaver said building the school with the help of a Design, Build, Finance and Maintain model (DBFM) as devised by Hubco North could result in unknown additional cost to the council.
His stark warning came during a meeting of the council’s education and families committee on Wednesday, which discussed the progress made on the ambitious project.
The meeting heard that officers were confident that the turf for the long aspired school could be cut in March next year.
The latest cost projections are for a £31.7 million (excluding VAT) 1,180-pupil school, plus £9 million for a halls of residence and alterations to the nearby Clickimin Leisure Centre, worth £1.5 million.
An application for funding of two thirds of the project cost was submitted to the Scottish Futures Trust at the end of April.
The school will be delivered through the Hubco-consortium, based in Inverness.
Once approved the government will pay for the project over a 25-year period, after which the ownership of the building will transfer to the council.
The SIC meanwhile has set aside up to £12 million to pay for its share of the project.
But councillor Cleaver said to him the model look very much like a “re-branded PFI model”.
He said he had repeatedly asked council officials about this but who had told him it was not what he thought, but when asking Hubco North the same question they had “unequivocally” replied: ‘Yes, it is!’
“If lessons had been learnt, then we may be able to safely engage in a model, which for many public bodies, has been a financial disaster. Only time will tell.
“We are committing in the region of £12 million of our reserve fund but we have as yet no clear understanding of the additional cost to the council purse of the finance and maintenance element of this contract,” he said.
He added that there was not such a thing as free money, and warned to be wary about the government’s intentions in offering Shetland in the region of £20 million.
Committee chair Vaila Wishart said that many people had concerns and it was important to come forward with these so that they can be discussed.
Frank Robertson said the companies that had designed and were earmarked to build the school were reputable firms that had experience in working in Shetland.
He said he was “pretty optimistic” about the project but suggested that it could benefit from being scrutinized by Architecture Scotland “as it moved along”.
Earlier in the meeting it emerged that extensive ground investigations had to be carried out at the proposed Clickimin site since part of the new school is set to be built on a former waste dump.
Councillor Theo Smith said he was concerned about the issue, as disturbing an old dump usually resulted in a can of worms being opened up.
Chair Vaila Wishart retorted that generally where there were more worms, the healthier the land.
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