Council chiefs are unable to say when a £21 million extension might be built at Bucksburn Academy amid fears the new wing could be “effectively uninsurable”.
The school opened 15 years ago, replacing Bankhead Academy in the ever-growing Aberdeen community.
Already the seams of the £29m, 880-pupil, school are stretched, with £3m recently spent setting up portable cabins in the grounds.
And thousands more homes could be built in the school catchment area by the end of the decade.
But council chiefs warn it will not be “contractually straight forward” to have the desperately needed 300-pupil extension built.
What’s so different about Bucksburn Academy?
Bucksburn Academy was built alongside Cults Academy as part of a pioneering programme in the late 00s.
While it’s a state school, it’s owned and managed by a private company under a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract.
The idea being, the private sector would shoulder construction costs in exchange for profit as the council pays it off over the longer term.
Seven new primaries were built, and Seaton School was completely refurbished as part of the £130m project.
Private consortium NYOP financed the citywide project, designing, building and operating the schools for the local authority.
In 2016, Aberdeen City Council estimated it would pay another £412,128,000 to NYOP by the end of their contract in 2039.
What seemed like a great idea at the time could now be coming back to haunt city leaders…
Who would own the Bucksburn Academy extension?
The current quagmire is based on NYOP, not Aberdeen City Council, owning Bucksburn Academy.
That, officials say, is making negotiations over the extension “not straight forward contractually”.
Council officials have been trying to reach a legal agreement with the consortium on the extension for years.
One of the “significant risks”, council officials say, is the ownership of the proposed new wing of the school.
It would remain the council’s, unless the city is willing to pay NYOP to take it on.
So what would happen when a lightbulb goes or the heating breaks?
Council chiefs are wary of the practical issues in having a school with bitty ownership.
“Where responsibilities [for maintenance, heating and power] start and stop could prove problematic,” chief capital officer John Wilson recently warned.
What does this mean for insurance of Bucksburn Academy extension?
Labour councillor Simon Watson reckons that storm makes the £21m Bucksburn Academy extension “effectively uninsurable”.
“It seems very concerning, as we don’t want to have children going to school in an uninsured building,” he told the city finance committee last week.
At that point, council property chief Stephen Booth urged councillors to steer clear of commercial details he would “rather deal with in private”.
But project chief Mr Wilson’s recent brief lays it all bare.
NYOP’s insurers won’t cover part of a building the consortium doesn’t own.
Meanwhile, the council’s insurers have confirmed they wouldn’t cover the building either way, under city ownership or NYOP’s.
‘Difficult’ talks with NYOP have taken ‘much longer’ and still no deal done
Already lengthy talks with NYOP might be indicative of just how difficult building the extension at Bucksburn Academy could prove.
The way forward is not clear.
Only one other PFI school has been extended on the same scale as is planned for Bucksburn Academy.
And in that instance, Mr Wilson said, the final cost of that project is yet to be agreed.
What is apparent is that even more time will need to be flung into costly legal talks if the extension is to be built.
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And the likely outcome is an increase in the annual bill Aberdeen City Council pays NYOP for the 10 schools.
Mr Wilson told councillors: “There is some difficulty being found with NYOP.
“It’s taking much longer and we still haven’t got [an agreement] over the line.
“This seems to a problem throughout Scotland, so the council and NYOP are looking to mitigate this and find a way forward.
“At this point, I can’t give you an exact timeline.”
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