MasterPlan - from bad to much much worse
Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 11:01 am
More on the Almoners' glorious MasterPlan. A couple of well-placed sources have recently contacted the Ridley Society about its latest disastrous lurches.
As predicted by the Ridley Society in 1999, the over ambitious project now seems in total tatters. Rumour has it that all further building projects have been abandoned, other than the completion of the remaining boarding houses to meet statutory requirements. (In effect creating a two tier system. The first eight boarding houses they lavished £16.9 million refurbishing and the last eight they’re now knocking out for £5 million.)
All other parts of the ill-conceived scheme (new classrooms, arts quadrangle, new d&t school) have been shelved.
Furthermore, to raise the £20 - £25 million needed for ‘repair and maintenance work’ on the rest of the estate the Almoners are now planning to flog off some more property in London.
Let’s hope they get a better price for it than they did for 5-13 Queen Anne’s Gate. Those were the five Grade One listed Queen Anne town houses they let go for £2.9 million in 1998, only for the properties to be sold on later the same year for £7.5 million. Ooops.)
By the way, having quietly moved to Total Return as a method of accounting, the Almoners are perfectly entitled to sell school property in the City.
With Horsham District Council currently discussing the expansion of housing near Broadbridge Heath, the Ridley Society predicts that it’s only a matter of time before the Almoners, despite a recent promise not to do so, resurrect plans to sell off school land to the west of the railway line to a property developer.
(After all, they are totally strapped for cash - despite press-ganging pupils into calling Old Blues to beg for money. Hmmm, I wonder why so many Old Blues have doubts over their money being well spent?)
On a final note, the Charities Commission declined to open a section 8 enquiry into whether the contract to build the sports centre was rigged back in 1988. However the commission’s officer based her decision partly on the mistaken impression that a vote of no confidence on its construction had been heavily defeated at a Court of Governer’s meeting at the time. The contract being rigged was never even discussed at a Governer’s meeting and the Ridley Society was most intrigued as to how the officer could have come to believe such a vote took place.
Therefore the Ridley Society is pressing on with an appeal in the belief that, if an enquiry is opened up, it will also shed some revealing light on how building contracts were awarded for the absurd MasterPlan and, indeed, how contracts may be awarded for any future building work resulting from the Almoners selling off chunks of school land in their desperate attempts to find money.
More to follow.
http://www.ridleysociety.com
As predicted by the Ridley Society in 1999, the over ambitious project now seems in total tatters. Rumour has it that all further building projects have been abandoned, other than the completion of the remaining boarding houses to meet statutory requirements. (In effect creating a two tier system. The first eight boarding houses they lavished £16.9 million refurbishing and the last eight they’re now knocking out for £5 million.)
All other parts of the ill-conceived scheme (new classrooms, arts quadrangle, new d&t school) have been shelved.
Furthermore, to raise the £20 - £25 million needed for ‘repair and maintenance work’ on the rest of the estate the Almoners are now planning to flog off some more property in London.
Let’s hope they get a better price for it than they did for 5-13 Queen Anne’s Gate. Those were the five Grade One listed Queen Anne town houses they let go for £2.9 million in 1998, only for the properties to be sold on later the same year for £7.5 million. Ooops.)
By the way, having quietly moved to Total Return as a method of accounting, the Almoners are perfectly entitled to sell school property in the City.
With Horsham District Council currently discussing the expansion of housing near Broadbridge Heath, the Ridley Society predicts that it’s only a matter of time before the Almoners, despite a recent promise not to do so, resurrect plans to sell off school land to the west of the railway line to a property developer.
(After all, they are totally strapped for cash - despite press-ganging pupils into calling Old Blues to beg for money. Hmmm, I wonder why so many Old Blues have doubts over their money being well spent?)
On a final note, the Charities Commission declined to open a section 8 enquiry into whether the contract to build the sports centre was rigged back in 1988. However the commission’s officer based her decision partly on the mistaken impression that a vote of no confidence on its construction had been heavily defeated at a Court of Governer’s meeting at the time. The contract being rigged was never even discussed at a Governer’s meeting and the Ridley Society was most intrigued as to how the officer could have come to believe such a vote took place.
Therefore the Ridley Society is pressing on with an appeal in the belief that, if an enquiry is opened up, it will also shed some revealing light on how building contracts were awarded for the absurd MasterPlan and, indeed, how contracts may be awarded for any future building work resulting from the Almoners selling off chunks of school land in their desperate attempts to find money.
More to follow.
http://www.ridleysociety.com
