School rebuild on track for 2010

12:25pm Tuesday 1st July 2008

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The full re-build of a borough school should be completed within two years - provided negotiations with contractors are concluded successfully next month.

Last month Richmond Council's cabinet agreed to delay the first batch of work on a full re-build at Teddington School in an effort to prevent costs spiralling out of control.

“May 2010 is the estimated completion date for the building, but it’s entirely dependent on successful completion of negotiations."

Councillor Stephen Knight

This led to further delays on the £32m+ project but Councillor Stephen Knight, Richmond Council deputy leader and cabinet member for resources, said a start date for the project was close to being finalised.

"May 2010 is the estimated completion date for the building," he said. "But it's entirely dependent on successful completion of negotiations.

"We have our best officers working on it."

The first steps towards the demolition and complete re-build of the Broom Road school were initially due to begin in April - with floodlighting, relocation of the hockey pavilion, installation of a multi use games area (MUGA) all scheduled to be complete by August.

But the council's executive decided to delay these works so a final cost of the project could be ascertained by July 21.

The full re-build was set to cost £32.6m, with £24.9m being provided by the Government - who asked for the school to be ready by September 2008 when they handed the money over in early 2006 - under the Building Schools for the Future initiative and the council providing the rest.

Coun Knight said a final bill was still being prepared and if agreed works could begin in August and the school should be open by May 2010.

"The purpose of the negotiations is to get the price down to what we can afford and to get it as low as possible," he said.

"If we were to say what we thought a reasonable figure was it would weaken our bargaining hand."