South Lanarkshire Council to pay for Uddingston Grammar pitches

Nov 26 2009 by Alastair McNeill, Hamilton Advertiser

RESIDENTS living next to the new Uddingston Grammar School were angry this week to hear the developer will no longer be paying for playing field facilities in Porterswell.

When the £18.1m scheme was approved in 2006, conditions included that the developer – consortium inspirED, which included builder Morgan Ashurst – construct four grass football pitches for the school in the Porterswell area.

However, following a re-examination of developer commitments under the secondary schools’ modernisation programme, this will no longer be feasible.

Now South Lanarkshire Council will be responsible for providing the pitches, which the education department have estimated will cost £150,000 to £200,000.

Uddingston Grammar School parent representatives are unhappy at the council’s seeming lack of communication over the situation because they only heard about the situation at a school council meeting last month.

Two additional eight-a-side plastic surface pitches have already been built for the school in the Knowehead area.

Robert French, who campaigned against the school being built on the Meadowbank site, said: “The developers are not doing the job they were supposed to do at the outset.

“We are living in times of austerity and are being told by the council about the need for cutbacks in services.

“Yet the council have rolled over here and let the developer off the hook.

“It’s the council taxpayers who are being left to foot the bill.”

Another source said: “Parents only heard of this at the October school council meeting.

“There has been no communication with parents about this matter.

“It’s very disappointing.

“Now there is a lot of uncertainty about the pitches in Porterswell.

“The council say the cost will be between £150,000 and £200,000, but I think that’s unrealistic.

“I think it’ll be closer to £400,000”.

In 2005, South Lanarkshire Council entered into a contractual arrangement with InspirED to rebuild 17 secondary schools and refurbish two other schools for a capital value of £318m.

Asked about the Uddingston Grammar School situation, a council spokesman responded: “In May 2009, notification was received by the council on a claim for compensation of £13.7m in respect of events which were outwith the contract which had been signed by South Lanarkshire Council and their partners.

“Subsequent negotiations resulted in a net cost to the council of £1.5m which equates to 0.5% of the capital value of the contract.”