£1.4m on school maintenance in Herefordshire

Herefordshire Council leaders are next week expected to approve spending of more than £1.4m on school maintenance in the county.

Cabinet will consider the proposed maintenance programme for 2020/21 along with allocating £43,000 for individual pupil needs at a meeting at Shire Hall on Tuesday.

The council says there is a backlog of urgent and essential maintenance works at local authority maintained and voluntary controlled schools and an insufficient budget to address all the maintenance and condition issues in schools.

Officers estimate that it would cost £15m over the next five years to fix the all the problems at county schools.

“In order to prioritise the expenditure, all maintained school condition surveys have been scrutinised to identify the most significant and pressing works that are highlighted as requiring attention,” commissioning, procurement and assets cabinet member Gemma Davies said in her report to cabinet.

“In addition, priority has been given to health and safety work regarding fire safety identified arising from routine inspections of schools by qualified fire safety officers.

“The council is constantly reviewing the safeguarding arrangements at all its schools to ensure they meet current expectations.

“The council is expected to rectify fencing that is considered a potential safeguarding risk. Some allocations have been made to address safeguarding issues.

“Due to the size and scope of some schemes e.g. roof replacement and windows, and the limited funding available, some projects have been phased to be completed over a number of years.

“Some allocations have been made to continue this phasing of work.”

Kington primary school will have some £230,000 spent on improving its heating system and £200,000 will be used for a new roof at Riverside primary school.

The proposals include spending a total of £195,000 on new fencing, roofing and the demolition of the old swimming pool at Ashfield Park primary school in Ross-on-Wye.

New roofing and gas safety worksg at Aylestone school will cost around £135,000.

The plans also include maintenance work to Clifford, Garway, Michaelchurch Escley, Stoke Prior, Walford and Wellington primary schools as well as St David’s centre.