It's just over six years now, since Russell Scott primary school in Denton, had a £2.7 million refurbishment. But the school could now be bulldozed and completely rebuilt because the refurbishment was completely botched by the construction company Carillion who went bust in January 2018.
The Tameside primary school was forced to keep closing and the children were sent home on numerous occasions, because it was hit by flooding and other structural problems when the work was carried out by Carillion from 2013 to 2015. The school had been flooded by sewage and the playing field was left completely unusable after it was found to be filled with rubble, including glass, and ceramic material, which left it filled with craters. It failed fire safety checks and the school didn't comply with fire regulations. Despite never having issues with flooding, the school has been flooded on six occasions since the refurbishment. The new 'hyper-efficient' energy system also ended up costing the school an extra £30,000.
Steve Marsland, headteacher of the school, said it had been a nightmare. He told a local newspaper that the school had been forced to temporarily move into a disused secondary school while the work took place and added:
"The contractor was saying that everything was fine, while we were being flooded and even tested for explosive levels of sewer gas. We had sewage coming into the classrooms, we had to evacuate the building because we were paddling around in filth...We were continually monitoring the building. As soon as it rains the sandbags come out. In early summer we were flooded again - every time it rains heavily the school is under water. It costs tens of thousands of pounds to replace resources.
Both the school and Tameside Council, have had the school examined by experts and it seems that it would now be cheaper to knock it down and start again. Mr Marsland believes that the past six years have been spent 'throwing good money after bad', but accepts another rebuild won't come cheap.
Although Carillion had been criticised for carrying out sub-standard work across a range of national contracts, they were Tameside council's preferred developer. They had the contract to build the new council offices through 'Vision Tameside' and provided school meals for thousands of Tameside Children. They built schools in the borough and maintained council owned buildings and schools in Tameside.
In August 2017, the journalist Nigel Pivaro, wrote an article entitled: 'Carillion's survival critical for Tameside'. In the article, which displayed a degree of prescience and foresight, singularly lacking within Tameside Council, Pivaro posed the question as to what would happen if Carillion ceased to operate? How would it effect the still to be delivered new council offices, and the provision of school meals in Tameside? He wrote: "We asked Tameside Council if in the event of such circumstances they had a contingency plan in place? Tameside Council have declined to respond to our request."
In his article, Pivaro pointed out, that without a contingency plan the borough could be beset by chaos and increased expense at filling the gaps left by Carillion's demise. He seemed to think that if Carillion went down, it could take the council with it. He asked whether it had been wise for the council to put all its eggs in one basket with one firm on whom it depends on too much and if it was time, for Tameside Council, to divest itself from its exclusive relationship with Carillion.
When the Labour council in Tameside transferred jobs and services in 'Estates' and 'Facilities Management' to Carillion in 2011, they said the transfer would "safeguard jobs and services and cut costs." But Carillion didn't provide value for money for Tameside in several areas of its operations. The cost of school meals came in at 26 pence per unit more than the central government gives to councils to provide them. This left schools in Tameside, having to to meet the difference from their own budgets at a cost of a million pounds over the financial year. Moreover, the council officer who brokered the deal on school meals between the council and Carillion, went on to take up a management position with Carillion. It is also claimed by the governors of Russell Scott school that Carillion still owe the school £100,000 for energy costs incurred during the building of the new school. After Carillion went bust in January 2018, Tameside Council had to cough-up another £9 million from its useable reserves to get the 'Vision Tameside' development completed by another contractor.
While Tameside Council seem to have been taken by surprise by the demise of Carillion, the warnings signs were there to see long before its collapse. The smart money - the investors and hedge-funds, had been shorting Carillion stock as long ago as 2013. In April 2016, the trustees of the Carillion pension scheme, had highlighted how speculators were short-selling Carillion shares i.e. betting that Carillion's share price would fall. Six months before its collapse, one quarter of Carillion's shares were being used in 'short trades'. Carillion had debts of £850m and a pension fund shortfall for staff of £800m.
Despite the company issuing a profit warning in July 2017 that led to the resignation of the company's CEO, Richard Hanson, the then Labour leader of Tameside Council, Kieran Quinn - who was almost a cheerleader for Carillion and "proudly pro-business" - told 'Construction News' in September 2017, that he was in favour of a more direct and involved relationship between councils and contractors, because "If they come into partnership with us, it derisks it for them." Sadly, councillor Quinn, who was hailed as "a visionary," did not witness the collapse of Carillion or the debacle that ensued following its collapse, because he died a month before the company went into liquidation on 15 January 2018, at the age of 57.
John Bell, the Conservative leader on Tameside Council, at the time of Carillion's collapse, said that because there had been a total lack of scrutiny within Tameside Council, there had been no way to ensure if the council were getting value for money or whether Carillion was delivering efficiently. He said that both the political opposition and Labour council back benchers, had been kept in the dark.
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