£180 bill ...just to drill hole
Taxpayers hit by eye-watering maintenance costs for schools built in controversial PFI deals
SCHOOLS built by private firms are having to shell out sky-high sums for simple maintenance – including nearly £180 to a drill a hole.
In another example, a school was hit with a bill of nearly £500 to move notice boards.
The huge bills affect schools built under public-private partnership (PPP) and private finance initiative (PFI) schemes, where private cash bankrolls public building projects.
Private firms charge for ongoing maintenance – but figures obtained by campaigners show enormous charges are being levied for relatively straightforward tasks.
The figures are the latest scandal to hit PPP and PFI schools, largely built under the last Labour-led Scottish Executive, which cost taxpayers an estimated £500million a year.
A campaign group called ‘the People vs PFI’ said the figures were proof of a ‘Scottish PFI schools fiasco’.
Spokesman Joel Benjamin said: ‘There is evidence from numerous
‘Firms expect extra public funding’
schemes that PFI contractors are not even doing what they are being paid for within the contract, let alone the additional remedial work that is considered to be outside the scope of the contract – from which contractors expect additional taxpayer funding.’
The group obtained detailed information from Scottish local authorities on spending associated with the PFI/PPP schools.
Its dossier reveals the extra costs outside the contractual arrangements, which often give schools no say over where to source additional items or services from.
At Williamwood High School in East Renfrewshire, £403.59 was charged for the repair of three broken toilet seats, while at Mearns Castle High, in the same area, fixing two hand dryers cost £2,618.84.
Mearns Castle was also charged £494.58 for the removal and relocation of notice boards. An East Renfrewshire Council spokesman said: ‘All costs for repairs or changes include full labour and materials.’
A spokesman for BAM FM, the private firm maintaining the schools in East Renfrewshire, said: ‘Often there is more to these tasks than appears at first sight. The removal and replacement of notice boards at Mearns Castle High involved filling in holes in the wall, repainting an entire corridor and applying a protective coating to the corridor at the request of the school.’
In Glasgow, Springburn Academy was billed £178.76 for a hole to be drilled, while creating storage space in pupils’ toilets at Hillhead High cost £256.78 – and painting parking bay lines at Notre Dame High cost £719.40.
A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: ‘The costs are part of the contract and allow us to maintain the high standard of learning environment for our young people.’
Amey, the firm responsible for maintenance in the Glasgow schools, said: ‘All our schools contracts have regular review and benchmarking processes built into them to ensure our services represent value for money.’
Highland Council has been billed £1,921.18 a year for two extra water coolers and one water fountain, including maintenance – meaning more than £17,290 has been spent since 2008.
Tony Smith of the Mears Group, hired by Highland Council, said: ‘We understand the financial pressures local authorities are under and we work hard to deliver innovative services.’
On top of the annual charges, contractors can charge schools for additional services such as changing the use of a room or buying extra equipment.
Jim Thewliss, general secretary of School Leaders Scotland, representing headteachers, said schools were sometimes unable to install food preparation equipment for hospitality classes because of PFI or PPP contracts, hampering their ability to teach home economics.
Adjusting the agreements to allow change can involve a ‘nightmare of negotiation’, Mr Thewliss said.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We share the concerns around the flexibility and the value for money offered by historic PFI contracts which offered a bad deal for the public purse.’