{"id":245747,"date":"2025-07-07T16:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T16:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/245747\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T16:54:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T16:54:11","slug":"plans-for-new-birmingham-school-move-forward-despite-concern-over-soaring-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/245747\/","title":{"rendered":"Plans for new Birmingham school move forward despite concern over soaring costs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Major proposals for a new secondary school in Birmingham have taken a step forward despite concern over soaring costs.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/all-about\/birmingham-city-council\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:city council;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">city council<\/a> has been pushing ahead with its plans for extension works at Hamilton School in Handsworth amid the high demand for places for children with special educational needs across the city.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/all-about\/labour-party\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Labour;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Labour<\/a>-run authority has acknowledged there is a large shortfall of available school places to \u201csafely educate this cohort of children\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><b>READ MORE: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/uk.news.yahoo.com\/birmingham-indoor-market-developers-break-083900153.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Birmingham Indoor Market developers break silence as future of massive 700-home plan up in the air;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>Birmingham Indoor Market developers break silence as future of massive 700-home plan up in the air<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Cabinet members at the council last year approved the costs for the Hamilton School project, which includes plans for new secondary school provision.<\/p>\n<p>But it was revealed earlier this year that changes to the design of the project meant the total cost had jumped by just over \u00a35 million to a total of \u00a325.6 million.<\/p>\n<p>Government-appointed commissioners, sent in to oversee the council\u2019s financial recovery, said the changes had \u201cboth significantly increased costs and introduced delay\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the higher cost, council planners have now approved proposals for a new two-storey secondary school at the Handsworth site as well as an extension to the existing primary school building.<\/p>\n<p>Coun Lee Marsham, chair of the planning committee, said at a meeting this month: \u201cI suspect many of you in your inboxes and advice surgeries have parents of young people who require special educational settings.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"caas-img caas-lazy has-preview\" alt=\"Birmingham Council House. -Credit:Graham Young \/ BirminghamLive\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/625c7380062b568255ce71779c179959.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Birmingham Council House. -Credit:Graham Young \/ BirminghamLive<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere aren\u2019t always the appropriate places or support in place across the city so I think it\u2019s really welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The plans were approved by the planning committee, subject to conditions, on Thursday, July 3.<\/p>\n<p><b>Why did the project costs rise by \u00a35 million?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>According to a council report, a contractor identified an \u2018alternative design solution\u2019 that would reportedly enhance the chances of getting planning permission.<\/p>\n<p>It would move the location of the extension build of the Primary, meaning it would be further away from a residential area.<\/p>\n<p>The report said the changes would also improve the \u201cdesign of flow to better meet the needs of both children and staff\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>It said the total project cost was \u201cstill deemed as value for money\u201d to create a permanent secondary expansion for 160 children, as well as creating the additional capacity at the primary school.<\/p>\n<p>Despite this, the government-appointed commissioners argued the authority needed to learn the lessons from recent damning reports on huge mistakes, such as the disastrous implementation of the Oracle IT system and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/all-about\/perry-barr\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Perry Barr;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Perry Barr<\/a> \u2018athletes village\u2019 scheme.<\/p>\n<p><b>READ MORE: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/uk.news.yahoo.com\/birmingham-council-reset-relationship-travellers-090231527.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Birmingham Council to \u2018reset\u2019 relationship with travellers amid &#039;pressures&#039; across city;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>Birmingham Council to \u2018reset\u2019 relationship with travellers amid &#8216;pressures&#8217; across city<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cMembers must be able to rely on honest accurate reporting especially when things do not go to plan,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis needs to be a whole council culture change.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Labour council leader John Cotton has told the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/authors\/alexander-brock\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Local Democracy Reporting Service;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Local Democracy Reporting Service<\/a> the culture within the council was being \u201creshaped\u201d through its improvement and recovery plan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can see there were things that were wrong within the culture of this organisation, as well as how it was structured, which enabled mistakes to happen,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we\u2019re in a much stronger place now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The previous council report said project completion was projected to be September 2026.<\/p>\n<p>External auditors have highlighted several issues which contributed to financial turmoil at the council, including the equal pay debacle, inadequate budget setting, poor service management and demand-led pressures.<\/p>\n<p>The political blame game which followed the council effectively declaring itself bankrupt has also seen Coun Cotton point the finger at both the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/all-about\/conservative-party\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Conservatives;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Conservatives<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/all-about\/liberal-democrats\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Liberal Democrats;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Liberal Democrats<\/a> amid funding cuts over the past decade or so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Major proposals for a new secondary school in Birmingham have taken a step forward despite concern over soaring&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,95399,95401,95400,16435,30480,95313,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-245747","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-hamilton-school","13":"tag-handsworth","14":"tag-project-costs","15":"tag-school-places","16":"tag-secondary-school","17":"tag-special-educational-needs","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114813001152770147","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}