Improvements planned for La Mare schools’ maintenance
A FENCE causing health and safety concerns needs to be replaced at La Mare De Carteret High School and new doors and windows are required at both the secondary and primary school.
A series of planning applications have been made to maintain the school buildings – the cost of which will fall under £700,000 already set aside for improvements.
As well as replacement doors and windows, there is also a planning application for shelters to be erected for outdoor learning and a replacement fence installed for the tennis courts.
The applications relate to work planned for the summer but other improvements that do not require permission will take place this week during half term.
A section of the chain-link fence, which divides the existing tennis courts, was in a poor state of repair, the planning application said.
‘[It] is a health and safety issue and no longer fit for purpose, so needs to be replaced.
‘An access gate also needs to be incorporated.’
It added that it was intended the fence and gates would be re-located to another position on the site, in due course, to become ‘an integral part of any future schools re-development scheme’.
Five sets of external doors at the primary school need to be replaced.
‘The existing doors are to be carefully removed so as not to disturb the surrounding building material, and any possible asbestos material,’ the application stated.
Two sets of external doors and windows in the high school main entrance need to be replaced.
The classroom shelters will provide a covered area for all-weather outdoor learning.
Eduction, Sport & Culture announced last month that it was to spend £700,000 on maintaining the building over the summer.
It is currently deciding the future of the site and whether a rebuild will fit into its one-school, two-site secondary education model.
The work will happen in time for the start of the new school year in September.
ESC president Matt Fallaize said the site had suffered from ‘consistent under-investment’ in the past.
That was on the premise that completely new facilities might be just a few years away, however, the new committee did not believe it was acceptable to maintain the facilities in their current condition any longer.
Other work will include major refurbishment of the high school’s mobile classrooms and painting and decorating of classrooms, corridors and offices.
