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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
National
Stephen Topping

'No extra money' to fix primary school where classrooms were flooded with sewage

A school where classrooms were flooded with sewage and children were left with playing fields that 'resemble the Somme' will not be prioritised for funding.

Russell Scott Primary School, in Denton, was given a £2.7 million overhaul by Carillion from 2013 to 2015 - two years before the company went bust.

But the major project was botched, with a string of issues blighting the Tameside primary school, and experts say it would take £5 million to fix the building's problems.

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Andrew Gwynne, Labour MP for Denton and Reddish, has been pushing the government to step in and help get the issues resolved at Russell Scott.

But following meetings with the Department for Education, he has received a letter which confirms the primary school will have to fight for the same pot of cash available to other schools, with no additional money being made available.

Speaking about the letter in the House of Commons on Monday (January 31), Mr Gwynne said: "I too want children to be taught in safe spaces, which brings me yet again onto the plight of Russell Scott Primary School in Denton.

Russell Scott Primary School has been prone to floods since its £2.7 million refurbishment (Russell Scott Primary School)

"There's been a botched £2.7 million refurbishment by Carillion which left the school with wrecked footings, a leaking roof, defective fire safety measures, inadequate drainage that floods the school with raw sewage and the playing fields still resemble the Somme.

"It needs £5 million to put right or a new build. Baroness Barran wrote to me last week and basically said 'tough, there's no money'.

"That's not acceptable, is it? This isn't levelling up, let's get the purse strings open and let's rebuild Russell Scott."

In the months after the school reopened its doors, Russell Scott staff had to evacuate children after classrooms were flooded with raw sewage, while experts found fire safety defects on the first day spent inside the new building.

Despite never previously having issues with flooding, the school has been flooded on six occasions since the refurbished building was opened.

The playing field was also left with craters and rubble abandoned, including glass and ceramic material, and now children look through a fence at the unusable patch standing where there should be a lush lawn.

The playing field was left unusable after the work (Russell Scott Primary School)

Speaking to the Manchester Evening News last September, headteacher Steve Marsland said: "We had sewage coming into the classrooms, we had to evacuate the building because we were paddling around in filth.

"Since then we have had numerous closures for various non-compliance with building regulations, fire regulations and six floods.

"We are 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.

"It's only going to go from bad to worse, and we just don't know what is round the corner."

Having raised the issue in the House of Commons last year, Mr Gwynne met with then-parliamentary under-secretary of state for school system Baroness Berridge to discuss the issues at Russell Scott.

But last Wednesday (January 26), her successor Baroness Barran informed the MP that there would be no additional funding made available for the Denton school.

Instead, she told Mr Gwynne the school could tap into the £1.3 million government sent to Tameside Council in 2021-22 in the School Condition Allowance (SCA), which is to ensure all schools in the borough are kept 'safe and operational'.

Baroness Barran said the school received a further £9,184 in capital funding - although both those sums of cash fall well short of the £5 million estimated to get the building back up to scratch, following previous assessment work done by Tameside Council.

The government says Russell Scott could apply for more funding through its School Rebuilding Programme (SRP), which will see 500 schools gain cash for building upgrades.

However, the school will have to go through the same process as others in order to get hold of the cash, and there are no guarantees it would be chosen for the funding.

She wrote: "As has been articulated by officials to the council, aside from the existing capital programmes (SRP) and funding streams (SCA), there are no other capital funding routes available at this time to support Russell Scott.

"Departmental officials are of the view that further investigative works could be conducted by the local authority to evidence its health and safety concerns, particularly in regard to structural issues, fire safety and flooding risks.

"Should it decide to instruct further investigations, officials would be happy to continue an open dialogue with local officers to review this information at a later date."

Mr Gwynne raised the letter in Parliament on Monday, telling minister for school standards Robin Walker it 'basically said tough, there's no money'.

In response, Mr Walker said: "Well, the honourable gentleman [Mr Gwynne] is clearly a champion for the school, he's made the case many times before.

"I'd be surprised if that was the contents of my noble friend's letter because I believe, as he will know, there is a programme due to open shortly.

"Of course we can't preempt that programme, but I know he's made a strong case for his school."

The first 100 schools to receive funds from the SRP were announced last year, including 10 in Greater Manchester.

Up to 300 more schools are expected to be selected for rebuilds in the next phase of the scheme, the Manchester Evening News understands.

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