Decision details

Councillor Lucy Smith, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, presented the report which set out additional costs to enable the Council to contribute to the provision of temporary modular accommodation to enable the new school in Radcliffe school to open to its first cohort of pupils in September 2024, prior to the new school building being completed in early 2025. Members voiced their cross-party support for securing the new school despite the setbacks outside of the Council’s control.

Decision:

Cabinet:

1.    Approved the funding of indicative costs as set out in Part B of this report, to meet the Council’s financial obligations, to be met from the Children’s Services schools capital programme; capital receipts/borrowing; and the Greater Manchester City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement;

2.    Delegated approval of the finalised costs to the Executive Director of Finance; and

3.    Further to the decision of Cabinet (CA.172) in respect of the lease of land, agreed the revised plan at Appendix 1, showing the land to be subject to the lease agreement.

Reasons for the decision:

To unlock the delivery of a new secondary school for Radcliffe and utilise a Council owned Brownfield site for development.

Other options considered and rejected:

In order to deliver the new school in Radcliffe, the Council is required to confirm that it will commit to meet certain financial obligations. Failure to provide such a commitment will prevent the scheme from being progressed. The alternative option to not proceed with the school was rejected owing to the demonstrative need for new secondary school provision in Radcliffe and the importance of that provision in supporting the economic growth and sustainability of Radcliffe and its alignment with the wider objectives of the Radcliffe Strategic Regeneration Framework (SRF).