Issue - meetings

                 Report by Chief Executive Officer – People - Terence Herbert

Cllr Pauline Church, Cabinet Member for Children, Education and Skills introduced the report seeking approval for the Schools Capital Programme for 2020 – 2025, which addressed investment to improve the condition of maintained schools and expansion of mainstream schools.

The Cabinet were reminded that they had approved the Schools Capital Programme 2019–2024 in February 2019 and the updated Wiltshire School Places Strategy 2017-2022 in December 2017.The Council also has landlord responsibilities for the effective management and ongoing maintenance of the schools’ estate. The Council receives annual capital funding allocations from the Department for Education (DfE) to meet basic need (new places) and condition (capital maintenance works) only. At its meeting on 25 February 2020, Full Council also approved an additional £5m over the next five years for school maintenance works and an additional £100k per year for the next 10 years to improve the accessibility of schools.

In response to a question from Cllr Gordon King about the status of new capital schemes marked ‘not started’, Cllr Church provided an update on the commencement and completion dates for those schemes.

Resolved:

1. To note the progress on previously approved schemes at Appendix A of the report.

2. To consider and approve the new schemes, subject to planning approval and completed S106 agreements, requiring a total commitment of £8.325m as outlined at Appendix B of the report.

3. To approve the Schools Planned Maintenance Programme totalling £3.5m for 2020/21 as outlined at Appendix C of the report.

4. To authorise the Chief Executive Officer for People to invite and evaluate tenders for the projects described in this report, and, following consultation with the Cabinet Member, to award the contract for the project (subject to approval of any necessary statutory proposals) and to authorise, in consultation with the Head of Strategic Asset & FM (or the Asset Portfolio Manager (Estates), in accordance with the relevant scheme of sub-delegation (under paragraph 7 of Part 3B of Wiltshire Council’s constitution)), the acquisition of all land (and the completion of any legal documentation) reasonably required in order to facilitate the Schools Capital Investment Programme.

Reasons for Decisions:

The Council has a statutory duty to provide sufficient school places to meet the demand arising across Wiltshire, whether from demographic or population change, strategic housing development growth or the Army Re-Basing programme.

The approved Wiltshire School Places Strategy 2017- 2022 and its Implementation Plan identifies the priority basic need schemes requiring capital investment in the short, medium and longer term and these latest proposals for inclusion in the Schools Capital Programme will enable the priority works to be progressed. The Council also has Landlord responsibilities for the effective management and maintenance of the schools (for which the Council is responsible) estate and the approved programme will enable urgent and priority repairs and maintenance projects to proceed.