More than half of county’s high schools need urgent upgrades

Alec Doyle, Local Democracy Reporter

More than half of a north Wales county’s secondary schools are in need of major structural repairs according to a council review.

A report on Wrexham Council’s property maintenance shows that five of Wrexham’s nine high schools are graded Category C – operational, but in need of major repairs.

The grading system used in facilities management to rate the condition of buildings recommends that Category C structures should be repaired within three years.

According to the UK Government’s Good Estate Management for Schools advice, to be rated Category C means a building requires replacement of structural or service elements in the short to medium-term, has several structural, building or statutory compliance issues apparent, or one particularly significant issue apparent, often has problems with the windows, roof, other ‘envelope’ features or boilers, chillers.

These issues are likely to have major impacts upon the operation of the building, but still allow it to be operable.

In Wrexham each school currently rated Category C has a range of elements that fall below Category B. Most typically these are roof works, electrical issues and window replacements.

Six of Wrexham’s 58 primary schools are also rated Category C. The repair bill to make all 11 Category C schools in Wrexham sound is £14 million.

Over the last five years, Wrexham’s Education Department has received a  Schools Capital Maintenance Grant from Welsh Government to address the maintenance backlog in schools.

This has been used to install new windows, replace roofs, boilers and carry out general repairs in schools.

The grant is not guaranteed however and may not be received again next year.

Cllr Dave Bithell, lead member for Housing and Climate Change, said: “I think we’ve been very successful in working with Welsh Government to enhance our schools over the last few years.

“We’ve put a  significant amount of money through our 21st Century Schools plan.

“We have got schools now going through refurbishment and we aspire to get all our schools into Category B.

“There are 11 schools we need to get up to Category B. Have we got enough money – no, we haven’t. We’ve got to do a lot more work with the Welsh Government to get our schools back to standard.

“But I think we’ve made progress on limited resources and to be fair to the Facilities Management team, they are doing a really good job.

“We just need more money to bring our buildings up to standard.”

Maintenance backlog

A significant amount of work has been carried out to address the maintenance backlog in Wrexham’s schools. However the authority needs major capital investment in order to upgrade school buildings that still require urgent attention.

According to Wrexham Council Leader Cllr Mark Pritchard, it all comes down to money.

“If the Welsh Government was to give us more money we would speed up the process, of course we would,” he said.

“There are grants out there and we do apply for those. I think the Welsh Government does a very good job on education, but they have to consider the priorities of the 22 authorities across Wales while we have to prioritise Wrexham.

“The quality of some schools across Wales isn’t as it should be but I would say in Wrexham I think we’ve done a very good job.

“We’ve got some excellent schools that we’ve built and refurbished and if we had more money we’d do it at a faster speed.

“Until then we will continue to prioritise them as and when they need to be done. If there is emergency work with regards to health and safety we do that instantly but overall if you go around our schools and see them it’s a credit to the work we’ve done in Wrexham.

“We are ambitious through our 21st Century Schools programme and who knows, there’s a budget around the corner and maybe there’s some more money for education in that?”