North Ayrshire Council's paying £12million a year for PPP schools
A Freedom of Information request to North Ayrshire Council reveals PPP contract costs for 2016-17 of nearly £12.9 million says GMB Scotland.
A Freedom of Information request to North Ayrshire Council reveals PPP contract costs for 2016-17 of nearly £12.9 million says GMB Scotland.
GMB Scotland has today (Wednesday 13 April) slammed North Ayrshire Council’s (NAC) ‘obscene’ £1 million a month Public-Private Partnership (PPP) bill to ensure the upkeep of four schools with a roll of over 3,600 pupils.
A Freedom of Information (FoI) request submitted by GMB Scotland revealed an estimated PPP cost of £12,891,549.70 for 2016-17, largely for the cost and maintenance of Arran High School, Greenwood Academy, St Matthew’s Academy and Stanley Primary.
The findings have emerged amid widespread calls for a safety review of all PPP contract buildings across Scotland following the closure of seventeen schools in Edinburgh after serious construction defects were uncovered.
GMB Regional Organiser, Paul Arkison, said: "These payments are an obscene waste of local taxpayers’ money and particularly at a time when NAC has imposed £13.6 million worth of cuts to local services.
It is morally wrong that local hard-working families are lining the pockets of big business to ensure their kids’ education while local community services are being decimated.
Councils should be looking at every option available to them in order to renegotiate these contracts, which look increasingly like a heist on the public purse.
It could well be the case that we are merely scratching the surface of a major economic and infrastructure problem and GMB Scotland fully supports the calls for an urgent review of all PPP contracts across Scotland."
A spokesperson for North Ayrshire Council said: “The value of the PPP contracts was subject to rigorous scrutiny at the point these were agreed.
“The Council has well established and robust processes in place to ensure the contractors deliver these PPP contracts in line with the obligations, and this has resulted in the Council being able to reduce payments for a number of years.
“As part of the Council's approach to ensuring contracts continue to offer value for money, a review of the PPP contract is currently being carried out.”