Now taxpayer looks to ESC to deliver savings

The timescales set for the project were all in line with a fairly ‘gung-ho’ attitude towards making progress in secondary and post-16 education an immediate priority for the new States.

Education admitted back in November that it was struggling to keep to the timetable – passing off most of the blame to the construction industry, which wasn’t too amused at the buck-passing – and now it accepts that we are looking at summer 2025 before completion of the process

As the actual vote to progress split the States, upsetting many, so reaction to the news has either been of the ‘told you so’ nature or with a shoulder shrug of resignation.

How campaigners against the ESC model may have greeted the ESC president’s comments about an ‘arbitrary deadline’ is predictable, and the wording seems overly casual.

But the other side of the debate recognises that the demand to make political progress effectively concluded with the vote to go ahead with a project now expected to cost the best part of £100m.

Now some parents may not be satisfied, but they are informed about the delays and their impact on the build schedule.

So islanders will be expecting that first, Education ensures that those pupils spending an extra year at La Mare de Carteret are well looked after in appropriate settings, and secondly, having acted on its concerns about timeframe and costs, that it offers the public purse best value on the project.

It has already flagged the best part of £3m. in savings that won’t be realised on schedule in relation to the post-16 campus, and in increased costs maintaining the programme and of keeping La Mare open.

But Education also speaks of ‘greater flexibility’ and reduced risk of an overrun of the construction phase of the project, offered by the extended timeline, and it must be hoped that it will be able to be prudent and save money as a result.