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Question from: County Councillor Gareth E Jones Subject: School Maintenance Backlog PDF 33 KB
Question:
I note from recent statements made by the portfolio holder and reported in the press that there is a backlog of maintenance in the council’s schools amounting to over £76 million and that council tax would have to be increased by at least 20% to clear this figure over the next 5 years. Could the portfolio holder please provide: -
1. A School by School breakdown of the £76 million giving the estimated backlog that is required: - a. within a year b. between 1 year and 5 years c. Over 5 years 2. A breakdown of the backlog of maintenance figures by individual school for the 2017/18 year (or the closest year to that date which figures are available for), split into the same three periods (if available). 3. The details of the calculations he has used to arrive at the figure of a requirement of a 20% rise in Council Tax to clear this backlog over the next five year period.
Additional documents:
Minutes: Response by the Cabinet Member:
Apologies for the long delay in publishing this response.
Question 1. Here attached are three pdf summary pages providing the individual total estimated costs for backlog maintenance for each primary secondary, special and pupil referral units. The estimated backlog maintenance has not been broken down into the three time periods requested as there is a significant level of work. The tables for each school type indicates the year the last condition survey was completed from year 2016 onwards with the estimated backlog maintenance value of works. All other schools have estimated costs for the backlog maintenance based on the overall condition of the buildings.
Backlog of maintenance The backlog maintenance is defined as the estimated cost to make the current buildings to keep it in repair. This does not include significant building improvements or extension works.
The current backlog of maintenance for all schools is summarised below:
Primary £27,534,886 Secondary £45,776,962 Other facilities £8,777,410 (Special, PRU and EY) *Total Estimated backlog maintenance of buildings £82,089,258
Note *These estimated costs for backlog maintenance have only been updated in year 2022 due to the impact with the COVID pandemic.
The table below gives a brief overview of key asset data for school property buildings (primary, secondary, special and PRUs) with Condition category ‘C’ and ‘D’ and the estimated backlog maintenance for each type of school.
Backlog maintenance Year 1 Work priorities have been included in the Schools Capital programme and other associated repair and maintenance budgets.
Question 2.
There is not a full breakdown of estimated backlog of maintenance figures for the year 2017. The breakdown in the three areas is not available at this time.
Question 3.
The calculation is based on the statements during the 2022/3 budget round that a 1% rise in Council Tax raises approximately £700k net. If the backlog were spread over 5 years funded solely by council tax this would require a ringfenced rise of approximately 20% maintained for 5 years.
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