At the Education Committee tonight the Committee approved a tender to spend £41,263 on replacement storage heaters at Baldragon Academy.Councillor Laurie Bidwell said:
"I sought to defer this decision to give more time for a fuller options appraisal. I did this because I do not think that replacing faulty storage heaters in the school with new storage heaters is the answer. The Council should take decisions that represent best value. As part of considering what is best value, we need to consider the running costs of a heating system over time and its environmental impact as well as the initial cost of installation. In this case, I do not think this tender represents best value in its wider sense. Firstly, I question whether doing half the job, by replacing 40 faulty heaters now is good value for money. It is usually cheaper to do a job like this in its entirety rather than in a series of stages that prolongs the completion of the work and usually costs more in the end. Secondly, I think a decision to stick to storage heaters will saddle the Education Department and School with a heating system which will be more expensive to use and less adjustable and comfortable than a pumped hot water system with radiators complete with individual thermostatic valves. I do not think storage heaters will be such a cheap option when considered over the lifetime of the system. Thirdly, when the Director of Education was questioned about the environmental impact of his proposal or the potential cost savings no costs or figures were available. He could, I think, only speculate that a gas central heating system would cost more than £1 million but had no technical member of staff present to offer any real detail.
By introducing the spectra of pupils and staff potentially left in the cold, the Education Convener, persuaded enough councillors to support her proposal. Had there been any real prospect of a heating crisis as Baldragon Academy, no one, least of all me, would have been critical of a smaller number of heaters not working being replaced immediately while more time was given to preparing and justifying to the Education Committee the best value option.
I am pleased, in the light of the debate that I instigated, that Councillor Borthwick persuaded the Convener to now bring forward a report on long-term heating solutions for the school."
