Border Telegraph | News | School site plans: SBC coughs up £100,000 to consultants

Saturday, 17th May, 2008

Published: Wednesday, 5th March, 2008 10:00

School site plans: SBC coughs up £100,000 to consultants

By Ally McGilvray

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CASH-strapped council chiefs spent more than £100,000 on external consultants to design the planning briefs for the soon-to-be redundant school sites in the Borders.

And this despite their own staff apparently offering to do the job in-house.

Scottish Borders Council’s head of property and facilities management, Andrew Drummond-Hunt, revealed the figure at a meeting of the scrutiny committee as members discussed a review of local authority’s assets in a bid to save money.

The total cost needed to fund the Public Private Partnership building the three new high schools – Earlston, Berwickshire and Eyemouth – is £6 million.

And the consultants’ cash revelation comes at a time when the council is making swinging cuts to plug a funding gap.

Councillor Nicholas Watson, of the Borders Party, said: “I am quite alarmed by the long delay in getting this project off the ground.”

And Councillor John Paton-Day, Leaderdale and Melrose, believes the site should be developed for more houses for rent.

He said: “I think the sale of council houses was a social disaster.”

And he added: “I would like to see more of the land used to build homes for rent so they can live their lives without fear of being thrown out by a private landlord.”

A SBC spokeswoman said: “The property rationalisation project has always been a totally separate project.

“It was initially project managed by an external consultant but the Programme Board was not satisfied with the progress and the project was brought in-house to be completed.

“A fee was paid to the consultant for work they had undertaken.

“The internal consultation process with officers and elected members is underway to consider the options for the future use of the former schools to determine what would be retained and what would be sold.”

Meanwhile, a working group is being set up to investigate how the local community will be able to access facilities at the new high school in Earlston, which is on target to be completed in the summer.

During the meeting it was also revealed that the council is looking at more radical ways to save money, including asking some employees to work from home.

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