WARRINGTON has offered three schools as pilots in any new scheme the Government sets up to replace the scrapped Building Schools for the Future programme.
Beamont High, Orford, Penketh High and Fox Wood Special School at Birchwood could be modernised at a total 
cost of about £55 million, the borough council believes.
Council leader Ian Marks (pictured right) and his deputy, Keith Bland (left), have written to education secretary Michael Gove with their proposal.
They believe the borough’s experience in rebuilding Culcheth High School and extending Birchwood High School could be of use in developing a new programme.
Coun Marks and Coun Bland say they would like to share this experience with a review team the government has set up under Sebastian James, operations director of retail electrical giants DSG International, to look at a successor to BSF.
Warrington rebuilt Culcheth High School under the BSF programme created by the previous Labour Government but extended Birchwood High by more traditional means.
But Coun Marks and Coun Bland said they always had concerns about the BSF process.
“We have spent £1.8m on set-up costs and were required by the previous government to take on six different 
consultants. There was also anecdotal evidence that it was not necessarily the most needy schools that were receiving investment,” they said.
For these reasons, they agreed with Mr Gove that there had to be a better way of investing in schools.
They believed the Culcheth and Birchwood projects had provided Warrington with a valuable learning experience for us.
“In close partnership with the schools we have delivered excellent value for money, minimised the use of external consultants and brought the project to fruition in the shortest time possible.
“Our preferred approach for investment in schools is for a direct capital allocation to the local authority to then directly procure design and construction services. We believe this offers much better value for money and will enable projects to be delivered more quickly and more cost effectively.”
The two councillors stress that Warrington’s most needy school is William Beamont, which is in one of the most socially deprived parts of the town.
It also has the unique feature of being a key part of the £30m Orford Park Community Sports Village project which is due to open early in 2012 and will provide an Olympic legacy for Warrington and the wider North West.
Town bids for £55m new school projects
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Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
