Decision details

RESOLVED that

1.    The update to the Binfield Learning Village Procurement Plan in Appendix 1, Part 2 of the Director of Children, Young People and Learning’s report be approved.

2.    The award of the Enabling Works contract for the construction of the Binfield Learning Village to Mace Limited for a value up to £850k be approved.

3.    The award of the Main Works contract to Mace Limited for a value of £36.3m (up to £37.15m including the Enabling Works) for the construction of Binfield Learning Village be approved

4.    A supplementary capital approval of £3.3m as referred to in Part 2 of the Director of Children, Young People and Learning’s report be recommended to Council.

The Binfield Learning Village (BLV) at Blue Mountain is a priority for Bracknell Forest Council. The programme will deliver statutory school places from September 2018 required in the Borough alongside meeting the need for new housing and the associated community facilities.

BLV has been proposed as a STEM school catering to children of all ages with a capacity of 1851 pupils, consisting of:

·         a nursery to provide for up to 52 children,

·         primary provision providing for up to 420 children, 2 Forms of Entry (FE),

·         secondary provision providing for up to 1,050 pupils, 7FE,

·         post-16 providing for up to 315 students, and

·         an integrated SEN provision for up to 40 primary and secondary.

A school provider was selected by the Council and recommended to the Regional Schools Commissioner (RSC). The RSC has made its decision in June 2016 supporting the Council’s recommendation and has appointed the King’s Group Academies.

The development of the Blue Mountain site in accordance with the Site Allocation Local Plan has been previously approved through the Executive process, which included a full Council consultation. Planning Permission for the BLV has been granted in June 2016, which is subject to a six-week judicial review period. The council is due to receive the land from the current site owner on the basis that an all-through school will be built by the Council.

The new BLV school is due to commence from September 2018, which is means that the current timetable has very limited programme contingency. The programme also has several external dependencies, which could negatively impact the programme delivery.

The scope, timetable, funding model and the procurement plan for the Learning Village was approved by the Executive in October 2014. An update to the procurement plan to reflect the current position has been provided in Appendix 1.

Following the decision taken by the Executive on 21 October 2014 to use the IESE Framework for the Binfield Learning Village, and the appointment of Mace, by the Executive Committee in April 2015, as a contractor using the IESE framework for the Stage 1 pre-construction services a further decision is required to appoint Mace for the Stage 2 of the IESE framework for enabling and main works contracts.

A decision to award the contract for enabling works and main works could be taken by the next meeting of the Executive in September 2016, which would lead to a significant delay to the delivery of the programme. As a result, the new Learning Village would most likely open a year later in September 2019. Over and above, external dependencies could further delay the programme delivery. The cost of delivering the programme would also increase during this period due to inflation.