Neighbouring councils to undertake the work for Torfaen Council two schools projects

by Twm Owen

THE redevelopment of two schools in Torfaen will have to be taken over by officers from a neighbouring authority after senior staff left the council. 

Both the principal project manager and the technical officer, from Torfaen Borough Council’s in-house consultancy team that oversees major building projects, have quit this month for posts in the private sector while the department’s principal quantity surveyor no longer works for the authority. 

As a result council leader Anthony Hunt has had to approve a request from John Lewis, the council’s property construction head, to ask that Blaenau Gwent Borough Council be commissioned to undertake the work. 

At present the council’s in-house property construction team is managing the expansion of Crownbridge Special School in Cwmbran and the remodelling of the town’s Welsh medium. 

A quantity surveyor is also needed for a grants programme. 

The council will pay Blaenau Gwent an hourly rate of £47 for the service, with it saying the private sector would charge £70 or more an hour. 

The money will be found from existing budgets and the arrangement will last until the council is able to fill the vacant posts. 

The property construction team previously worked in collaboration with colleagues from Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council, and other Gwent councils except Newport, but the Memorandum of Understanding which covered the arrangement has expired.