The £150k bill to make £14m failed school building safe

COLLEGE, WHICH WAS CLOSED AFTER JUST THREE YEARS, NEEDS THOUSANDS SPENDING ON IT TO FIX DEFECTS

A SCHOOL which cost millions and ended in failure is still costing taxpayers money – even though it has closed.

Greater Manchester University Technical College cost £9m to set up and another £5m to run – but was shut down in the summer after just three academic years.

The purpose-built campus has now been passed to another school – Oasis Academy – to use. But an M.E.N. investigation has revealed up to £150,000 is having to be spent to make the building safe and fix structural defects.

Our investigation uncovered a string of problems at the UTC’s former Middleton Road campus – which was supposed to be state-ofthe-art.

Missing and defective fire doors, faulty fire sealants, broken lifts, loose wall panels and malfunctioning electrical and mechanical systems were found by council officials who visited immediately after the school’s closure. On top of this, £250,000 more will need to be spent to convert the building for use by Oasis Academy, who are expanding amid demand for school places.

One MP has described the problems at the former Greater Manchester UTC site as ‘shocking’, warning that the Grenfell Tower disaster has already proved the importance of rigorous fire safety standards.

Jim McMahon has now called for a government investigation, while the council’s education chief has slammed Greater Manchester UTC as a ministerial ‘vanity project’ for which the town hall is now footing the bill.

The school – which was outside of council control – opened in September 2014, but was shut down in June this year due to plummeting pupil numbers, soaring truancy and rockbottom GCSE results.

After its closure the school building was then immediately handed over to Oldham council so it could be used by the Oasis Academy to provide much-needed local school places.

However an M.E.N. Freedom of Information request revealed that when town hall officials entered the campus they found an array of defects.

The response from Oldham council states: “As part of this inspection a scope of works was agreed which included making good damage and defects with regard to the fire doors, missing fire doors due to damage and/or hinge failures, fire and smoke sealing of heads of walls, problems with lifts not operating, issues around fixing of wall panels and operation of mechanical and electrical systems.”

Of the £400,000 or so that is now being spent converting the UTC building for Oasis Academy’s use, £100,000-£150,000 ‘will be due to the making good of defects’, said the council.

It remains unclear how many of the school’s faults date back to the building’s construction and how many could have arisen out of poor maintenance.

The root causes are now being investigated by the council and the school’s original lead building contractor, Willmott Dixon. But Jim McMahon, MP for Oldham and Royton, has called for a full government inquiry.

“The suggestion that the building did not meet fire safety standards is shocking and parents of young people who attended the school have the right to know who was responsible,” he said.

“We have seen in a horrific way that there can be serious consequences when large buildings are not given the full fire protection they need.

“It is vital the government carry out a full investigation and make public its findings, and that those responsible are held to account.”

Greater Manchester UTC was founded and sponsored by businessman Michael Dwan, the venture capitalist also behind the Bright Tribe academy chain. He remained chair of the school’s trustees until last year.

The school’s £8m construction contract was procured by the UTC’s trust using a government grant. Builders Willmott Dixon were given the lead construction contract through a process the Department for Education said was an ‘approved’ procurement framework, while a further £1m of IT and fixtures and fittings work was carried out by other contractors not specified by the DfE.

An FOI response from the department states the building received ‘all statutory sign-offs’ – one from government inspectors and one from the council’s building control department – in September 2014, ahead of its opening.

Once open, the UTC trust itself was responsible for ensuring fire