News / AHS project moves forward to next stage
THE NEW Anderson High School, in Lerwick, is set to welcome its first intake of secondary pupils in August 2016, exactly three years from this week.
Shetland Islands Council education officials said on Tuesday they were confident of being able to stick to this timetable after councillors agreed to submit a project request to HubCo, the consortium that will build the school, halls of residence and make alterations to the Clickimin Leisure Centre.
Following a three-hour meeting of the education committee, most of it held behind closed doors, head of children services, Helen Budge, gave further explanations as to why the estimated cost for the school had gone up from £36 million to now £42 million.
She said the reasons were twofold;
- more funding had been allocated for the new school’s additional support needs’ (ASN) unit, because it serves the whole of Shetland;
- the cost calculations are now being made on the basis of a 1,180 pupil school, the same capacity the current Anderson High has.
The Scottish government, through the Scottish Futures Trust, is committed to fund two thirds of the overall project costs.
At present, the new school has a price tag of just over £30 million, the new 100 bed halls of residence is estimated to cost about £9.5 million, while the cost for the extension to the existing leisure centre now stands at £2.1 million.
Budge said: “At this stage I wouldn’t say the amount of money has gone up. As we have worked through the detail of the project the amount of money has become clear.”
During the public section of Tuesday’s meeting, councillors approved earmarking £14 million of the council’s own money for the project.
They also agreed that the new facility should have a synthetic sports pitch, an additional facility requested by councillor George Smith and supported by David Sandison.
Michael Stout sought assurances that the IT provision at the school would always be of the very latest standard, while Sandison wondered to what extent contaminated land at the town’s former dump would affect the building of the new school.
An answer to his question was only provided during the private session of the meeting, but afterwards Helen Budge stated that the school would definitely not be built on contaminated land.
“We are not looking to plan the school on the contaminated land,” she said.
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