Dear Editor,
Back in July 2021, the first Children and Families Committee, was asked to invoke the Urgent Decision Procedure to expedite the remodelling of the CE Dean Row building as a satellite expansion site for Springfield Special School at a cost of £3 million.
Despite my concerns at the lack of detail, we were told that it was vital to get a construction contract in place by Autumn, planning permissions sorted by Spring, with additional special needs school places available by September 2022.
Unfortunately, at subsequent Finance and Corporate Policy Committee meetings, we’ve been informed of planning and contract delays and as the months have passed, we have been asked to approve inexorably rising costs.
The planning application was submitted six months late and took a further five months to get approved last November.
So 18 months on, the Children and Families Committee are being asked once again, to approve projected costs of over £6m – over 100% higher than we were first told despite not a single brick being laid and no definitive contract signed.
Despite the ‘world events’ that CEC cites for this debacle, the fact remains that in July 2021, they were simply not ready.
The plans and designs were incomplete, the scheduling was grossly optimistic (even in good economic conditions), and the planning department was already well-known to be working at capacity.
We are committed, as a council to bring more SEND places forward and technically, Cheshire East has found a way to pay for the rising costs of this project – but only by dipping into much of the 2023-2024 High Needs Capital Grant and unallocated schools funding from this financial year.
It’s vital that the Satellite opens its doors to SEN pupils as soon as possible as the need is great, but equally, we can only hope that CEC has forecast the repair and maintenance needs of all other CE schools correctly over the next two years, because those Grants are now grossly depleted!
Yours
Cllr Janet Clowes
Conservative Group Leader
Cheshire East Council
Is this the start of CEC’s bad news items for 2023? They had a good number in 2022. Good job the CE and Directors including Senior Councillors responsible for CEC are not football team managers!!!