Costs of Milford Haven school refurbishment kept from councillors

A DELAY in refurbishment of Milford Haven School could see costs rise to £1million – and councillors have been kept in the dark, a local member has said.

Cllr Guy Woodham told full council today (May 9) that they were being asked to make a decision on developing an learning resource centre (LRC) for children with additional needs without all the details.

He said he supported the consultation on establishing an LRC but added the report to council “isn’t giving the full picture.”

“There’s no clear indication of the potential delay that this will cause to the Band B 21st Century Schools refurbishment planned for Milford Haven School.

“We’re looking at maybe a year and the cost of that delay being estimated at £600,000 and possibly moving to £1million.”

Cllr Woodham said he only knew of the delay because of a meeting held with the school and local councillors with the stage one tender moved to March 2020 instead of this May.

“The school will have to bear the costs of that and lose out on a teaching block and other changes,” he said.

He added he was “very disappointed that the report doesn’t make clear that this is the situation.”

Cllr Jamie Adams argued that the funding for Milford Haven School had been “lost in the budget of Haverfordwest High” but Cllr Paul Miller responded that the blame for that was Cllr Adams’.

“Haverfordwest High would be nearly built by now if you’d listened to this chamber and the people of Haverfordwest rather than trying to hammer home your vision for the future of Haverfordwest’s education,” said Cllr Miller.

There was no “sufficient explanations” forthcoming as to why the information was not included in the report to council Cllr Mike Stoddart said, adding that Milford Haven is “already getting a poor deal” compared to Haverfordwest.

Councillors agreed that statutory consultation on establishing an LRC to address the gap in provision for children with additional learning needs in a mainstream setting be started.

Alongside this the matter will also be referred to the schools and learning overview and scrutiny committee for further examination.