Education is accused of letting La Mare crumble
CLAIMS that Education has underspent potentially millions in maintenance funding have drawn fresh battlelines over the rebuild of the crumbling and creaking La Mare schools.
As the rebuild row intensifies, Treasury minister Deputy Gavin St Pier released figures showing that Education's annual routine capital allocation for its education estate was repeatedly underspent between 2010 and 2014 – with underspends peaking at £895,000 in 2012 and collectively amounted to £2.8m.
However, Education minister Robert Sillars has hit back at the claims and said that all of the money was allocated to projects, and when any were not completed during a given year, the money and projects were rolled over to the next year.
The figures, released by Treasury, showed Education had £550,000 left over in 2014, £705,000 in 2013, £895,000 in 2012, £657,000 in 2011 and £59,000 in 2010.
Deputy Sillars yesterday insisted all this money had been allocated to work, but often these kind of larger-scale projects had to be carried out during the summer and could be delayed by a limit on the building firms or project managers available at one time.
