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Schools boss denies 'overspend' claims
THE official in charge of the axed school rebuilding programme has rejected government claims the scheme was hit by ballooning overspends and red tape.
Tim Byles, head of the Partnerships for Schools agency, denied comments by Education Secretary Michael Gove in the Commons about the expense of schools built under Building Schools for the Future programme.
His comments, in a session of the Commons education select committee, set him at odds with Mr Gove, who has had to apologise for issuing a list of affected schools which was strewn with errors.
About 700 secondary schools which had not reached financial close on their building works saw their projects cancelled as a result of Mr Gove's decision.
Sheffield and Barnsley survived the purge. Rotherham and Doncaster were told multi-million pound schemes to rebuild schools would be abandoned.
Those affected in Doncaster included Campsmount Technology College, which was 60 per cent destroyed in a blaze in December 2009. Mobile buildings are now used for lessons.
In Rotherham, seven school projects were ditched, including private finance initiative schemes to rebuild or refit Oakwood, Milton, St Pius and Swinton schools. Proposals for the Maltby Academy are being reviewed. Mr Gove cancelled the initiative because he said it had been hit by "massive overspends, tragic delays, botched construction projects and needless bureaucracy".
Mr Byles partially accepted Mr Gove's criticism of "bureaucracy and waste" in the BSF programme, blaming EU competition rules that required two plans for each proposed school. But he told MPs targets for signing deals with contractors and opening schools had been met in each of the last three years. He stressed the much-criticised consultants' costs were just 2.8 per cent of the overall bill.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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