Issue details

Proposed decision:

The Cabinet Member for Education and Skills is asked to:

(i).      Approve the allocation of £1,430,000 capital funding from the Children’s, Young People and Education modernisation capital budget to replace the modular classroom and wooden hall/classroom at Langdon Primary School;

(ii).      Delegate authority to the Director of Infrastructure in consultation with the Director of Education to enter into any necessary contracts or other legal agreements as required to implement this decision; and

(iii).     Authorise the Director of Infrastructure to be the nominated Authority Representative within the relevant agreements and to enter into variations as envisaged under the contracts.

Background

Langdon Primary School is a small primary school in Dover District with a PAN of 15. It is a popular school which serves a rural community.  For September 2024, there 36 preferences in total with 14 places allocated.  We would expect the Yr. R to be full for September 2024.

Two classrooms are in the main school building, two are in modular/wooden buildings.  The modular/wooden buildings have reached the end of their usable life.

Despite the school maintaining both buildings, the condition surveys undertaken by KCC and the Department of Education in 2021 and 2022 respectively confirm that these need to be replaced. Further maintenance is not an option.  Accordingly, replacement of the buildings has been added to the Modernisation Programme for the 2023-24 academic year. 

Feasibility studies have explored options to replace the current buildings with either a traditional brick build or a modular build.  Replacing the buildings with a bespoke modular solution has been identified as the is the most straightforward and economically viable solution. 

Financial Implications

Capital: The proposed works have been taken to RIBA stage 3 and are estimated at £1,430,000. Planning permission has been granted and all surveys have been completed. The proposal was first recognised and added to the Modernisation Programme for the 2023-24 academic year, and as a result this sum has been included within the modernisation school capital programme that was recently agreed by the Council as part of the Medium Term Financial Plan for 2024-27. 

Revenue:  A total of £70,000 revenue funding is required to provide one temporary mobile classroom for the duration of the building works. This was not known at the time of setting the 2024-25 revenue budget and so will be reported as an unfunded pressure on the revenue budget in the Cabinet financial monitoring report during 2024-25. The Directorate are looking at ways they may be able to offset this unplanned spend with other possible underspends either within the mobile budget or within the wider Education budget

Should the scheme not proceed through to completion, any costs incurred at the time of cessation would become abortive costs and are likely to be recharged to Revenue. This would be reported through the regular financial monitoring reports to Cabinet.