May 12, 2023, Manchester Evening News: Much-needed special school build hit with extra £10m bill [$12M]- and year-long delay https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/much-needed-special-school-build-26900064
N. central England
A new school building for children with special educational needs and disabilities in Tameside will cost nearly £10m more and open a year later than planned.
In the summer of 2021 the borough’s cabinet signed off on proposals to relocate and expand Hawthorns School from Audenshaw to a new site at Longdendale Playing Fields, in Mottram in Longdendale.
The project, which was budgeted at £13m, was granted planning approval in December with the aim of opening the new building by September this year, at which point the ‘dated’ Lumb Lane site would close.
However an update report presented to the executive cabinet states that the cost of the project has ‘changed significantly’ while being developed.
The total cost of the scheme has now increased to £22.76m [$28M], the extra funding for which will come from the education capital funding budget.
And provisional dates of the construction programme now state that work would start on site in May, with the completion and occupation of the new school from September 2024….
Councillor Jacqueline North told the cabinet meeting: “The school building will be funded entirely from education grant with no cost to the general fund and council tax payers.”…
