Re-announcement of Harris Academy Refurbishment

Today's news from the Scottish Government, is essentially a re-announcement of the SNP government's future school building programme from which they will part fund the refurbishment of Harris Academy in Dundee. I am concerned to see that my earlier predictions about the delay in making this programme a reality are unfortunately correct and a start on site is disappearing into the future. Unfortunately, it would appear that a pupil entering Harris Academy in S1 in August will probably need to wait until they are in S5 before they enjoy the new facilities promised. Right now MSP for Dundee West, Joe Fitzpatrick, must be feeling rather silly since last September he was insisting on Newsnight Scotland that a start on Harris Academy would be made before May 2011. With my colleagues in the Labour Group, I remain committed to trying to find a way of beginning the rebuilding of Harris Academy sooner rather than later. Later this month the Director of Education has committed to bring forward his delayed review of the school building programme in the city. Perhaps that will have more detail and some options for us to examine?

West End Labour Councillor, Richard McCready, said,
"I want to see real progress on the refurbishment of Harris Academy, I know that people in the West End and beyond want action rather than re-announcements. The Labour Group has made a clear offer to assist the Administration to deliver the refurbished Harris Academy but we have yet to have our offer taken up. I look forward to seeing real progress. We need to see detail and ensure that we work together to deliver the best school possible for young people and teachers in Dundee. The former Labour-led Administration in Dundee had a proud record of investment in education, this needs to be matched by the SNP."

Minister Confirms No Funding Yet for Harris Academy Rebuilding

In yesterday's Evening Telegraph, it was reported that Mike Russell, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning in the Scottish Government was in Dundee. He took the opportunity to visit Kingspark School and comment on the funding of the refurbishment of Harris Academy.

Unfortunately, the Education Minister's comments about his government's part funding of the refurbishment of Harris Academy served to confirm that the start date may be further away than predicted.

I think many folk connected with Harris Academy will be concerned that Mike Russell not only confirmed that, seven and a half months after the announcement about Harris Academy, no overall budget for the project has yet been agreed. Furthermore, he also appeared to be introducing another reason why this project will be delivered late, when he said 'Exactly at what time the money will become available depends on the present financial circumstances, but I think you can take it that it’s going to happen.'

I am glad the Education Minister came to Dundee to admire the new Kingspark School; our school providing education for young people between five and 18, who have a wide range of additional support needs. I should like to make it clear that the new Kingspark Special School he viewed while in the city is not funded by the SNP government's programme of school building but was funded principally by prudential borrowing by the Council. Furthermore, the contract to build the school was brought forward by the previous Labour/Liberal Democrat administration in the city during the time I was Education Convener. In fact this plan to rebuild Kingspark first appeared on the Education Committee's agenda in June 2008 and two years later the school will be ready for occupation. I regret his government has insisted that the Harris Academy refurbishment will need to go through the, yet to be established, new Hub Co for its procurement. Our Chief Executive, David Dorward has confirmed in an recent email to me, 'I would envisage that for the Company to be in a legal status that it could procure construction contracts may be during mid to late 2012.'
I remain committed, with my Labour colleagues on the Council, to look at any reasonable way of speeding up the refurbishment of Harris Academy and await an approach from the Education Convener to engage in discussions that might ease the path of this project.

Dundee Misses Out on Scottish Government Cash for New Primary Schools

This morning the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning announced a list of Primary Schools to be built or refurbished with part funding from the Scottish Government through their Scottish Futures Trust. No Dundee Primary Schools were selected for this latest tranche of funding. Labour spokesperson for Education in the City, Laurie Bidwell said:

"I am disappointed that no Dundee primary schools have benefited from the SNP Government announcement on Primary Schools this morning. Unfortunately, this confirms my view that their three phase programme of school building will only part fund one school project in Dundee and that is the refurbishment of Harris Academy. Welcome as that decision was in September, it falls far short of the SNP manifesto commitment of May 2007 to match Labour's school building programme brick for brick. One Secondary school refurbishment falls far short of the Labour led administration's PPP programme which has delivered two new secondary Schools (St Paul's and Grove) and six new Primary Schools (Claypotts Castle, St Andrew's, Craigowl, Downfield, Rowantree and Fintry). Not only does this SNP school building programme fall far short in the number of new schools to be built in Dundee, but also its speed of working will not set the heather alight. Two months on from the fanfare of publicity on 28 September, when the refurbishment of Harris Academy was announced, the Director of Education, is still unable to confirm the amount of government cash to be committed to this project. The longer this takes to be confirmed the less likely it is that any work can begin on Harris Academy before 2012/13."