CHILDREN will be forced to have lessons in makeshift classrooms because planned new schools are too small, parents claimed yesterday, in the latest blow to public-private partnership (PPP) schemes.
Castle Douglas Primary in Kirkcudbrightshire, which has 13 classrooms, is to be replaced by a building with only 11, despite a growing school roll.
It is one of nine new schools and one major refurbishment in a £200 million contract due to be sig
ned later this week.
The proposals are the latest PPP scheme that has failed to live up to expectations.
The construction under PPP of Edinburgh Royal Infirmary will earn the private company Consort about £1.26 billion from the public purse by the time the deal runs out in 2031, yet staff claim the hospital has been beset with maintenance problems and have complained about high parking charges.
Doctors across the UK have raised concerns over bed shortages, financial problems, poor quality and reduced levels of care as a result of PPP schemes, according to the British Medical Association Scotland.
And the final cost of a new PPP prison at Addiewell in West Lothian has been estimated at £600 million – which the Scottish Government says is 25 times what it would cost to build.
The BMA has previously condemned PFI (rebranded by the Labour administration as PPP) hospitals as "high-cost, low-value" schemes in evidence to Holyrood's finance committee, which is investigating the funding of such capital projects.
The SNP has always opposed the use of PPPs, and Kenny MacAskill, the justice secretary, has already warned taxpayers face being ripped off by many flagship projects funded through the private sector.
He said: "I believe our people have, frankly, received poor value, if not been ripped off, by many projects."
Alan Brown, chairman of the parent council at Castle Douglas, said the school had a roll of 346, yet the new school, due to open in 2009, will have the capacity for only 310.
He said: "
We know what children are in local playgroups and in the school nursery at the moment, so next year's fairly accurate projection still necessitates us having 13 classrooms. To do that, the council keep saying there's flexibility in the design."
Mr Brown claims Dumfries and Galloway Council is simply describing the library and IT suite as classrooms to solve the problem. And he said it would be necessary for children to be taught in portable cabins in the school grounds in order to free up the resource rooms.
"When it was brought to the school and the community to start with, everyone thought they were getting a school with a library and an IT resource room, and now these are being lost to satisfy the extra classrooms," he said.
"We've always been very concerned that's not sufficient for the number of pupils that are going to be there."
It is understood that parents of children at a school in Kirkcudbright have raised similar concerns.
A council spokesman said their figures differed from the parent council's figures by 13 pupils.
"However, this would not result in the council having to add on an additional classroom, as the general-purpose room is furnished as a classroom and this room has always been identified for use as a flexible area."
PUPILS' LOCKERS PLEA IN FEBRUARY pupils from Rosshall Academy in Glasgow took complaints surrounding their new PPP school to the Scottish Parliament.
The students claimed they were forced to carry heavy bags which could cause back injuries because their school had been designed with no room for lockers. They argued there was no hope of new lockers for the 1,250 pupils in their school. But they hoped to prevent problems elsewhere.
