Decision details

Decision –

The Cabinet Member for Education and Skills is asked to agree to:

a)    Allocate an additional £420,000 from the Children, Young People & Education Basic Need Capital Budget to fund any necessary additional works or variations to accommodation.

b)    Authorise the Director of Infrastructure, Strategic and Corporate Services in consultation with the General Counsel and Director of Education to enter into any necessary contracts/ agreements on behalf of the County Council.

c)    Authorise the Director of Infrastructure, Strategic and Corporate Services to be the nominated Authority Representative within the relevant agreements and to enter into variations as envisaged under the contracts. Variations to contract value to be no more than 10% above the capital funding agreed by the Cabinet Member without requiring a new Record of Decision.

Background:

The enlargement of Harrietsham CEP School from 210 to 420 places represents KCC’s strategic response to the forecast population growth in Harrietsham village and the surrounding area.

A public education consultation was held from 19 September 2016 to 17 October 2016, with the results included in the Cabinet Committee report.  The Harrietsham CEP School expansion scheme was considered by the Education and Young People's Services Cabinet Committee on 23 November 2016.  The Cabinet Committee endorsed the allocation of £3 million from the Basic Need budget to fund the permanent expansion of the school

A further £600,000 was allocated from the Children’s, Young People and Education Capital Budget in June 2019 to enable the creation of an additional and necessary bell-mouth entrance between the highway and the land being acquired for a car park and additional costs due to unexpected site logistics during construction relating to the topography and split levels between the car park and main school site. 

The proposal is to allocate a further £420,000 from the Young People & Education Basic Need Capital Budget to enable the scheme to be completed.

The reasons for the increased expenditure are as follows:

• Additional costs incurred due to significantly longer build time than originally anticipated; this is primarily as a result of unforeseen issues relating to planning, ecology and drainage.
• Supplementary design alterations to comply with planning requirements associated with a site within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
• The requirement for additional survey works to conform with ecological requirements following the acquisition of the adjacent land for the car parking area.  This work included the identification and relocation of protected species such as Great Crested Newts.
• Unforeseen work to ensure the drainage within the car parking area and main site are sufficiently robust to accommodate the extra capacity needed following the expansion.

The scheme was originally procured under a two-stage design and build contract, however delays caused by the planning constraints outlined above has meant that the project needed to be split into two separate contracts to ensure that the school is provided with the additional accommodation required for September 2020.

Action has been taken to mitigate the financial impact as far as possible, including 

·    Changes to roof design

·    Alteration to proposed storage and circulation space

·    Omission of works required to the existing front lobby and office space

Original decisions:

https://democracy.kent.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=1994

https://democracy.kent.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=2265

How the proposed decision meets the objectives of ‘Increasing Opportunities, Improving Outcomes: Kent County Council’s Strategic Statement 2015-2020:

As the strategic commissioner of school provision, the Local Authority (LA) has a duty to ensure that there are sufficient school places for the residents of Kent as set out in Kent’s Commissioning Plan for Education Provision in Kent (2016-20 iteration for this expansion).