Decision

Approval of additional capital funding, amounting to £0.242m, to enable the completion of the Birkwood Primary School expansion scheme.

Reasons for the decision

The Council has a statutory obligation to provide sufficient and appropriate number of pupil places across the borough.

A multi-phase scheme to increase the capacity of Birkwood Primary School from 280 pupils to 420 pupils (140 additional pupil places) commenced in April 2022, with further phases of work commencing in July 2022 and April 2023.

The commencement of the scheme coincided with the sudden increase in building material costs following a rise in energy costs in the production and manufacturing process, which resulted in significantly higher tender prices across all phases of work.  This has resulted in a shortfall of funding of £0.242m to deliver the final phase of works, the installation of a new all-weather sports pitch, to replace the existing playing field.   This is a key element of the project and is required to ensure the school meets the external play requirements for a 420 place primary school and will provide all year round access to play and sports facilities at the school.

Alternative options considered

A consideration was made to omit the installation of the sports pitch from the scheme, leaving the school with the existing playground and grassed playing field.  The playing field is often out of use over the winter / spring period because of the weather.  It is regularly waterlogged, making it unsafe and unusable for pupils.  The size of the tarmac playground isn’t sufficient for the larger school population.