Liverpool City Council publishes BSF rescue plan

Liverpool City Council has published revised plans to kick-start school building projects that stalled at the end of Building Schools for the Future.
Education specialist Bryanston Square Consulting advised the local authority that at least eight school projects can be resurrected out of the 25 that halted in July 2010 .
Liverpool plans to use the local authority procurement consortium Scape System Build to appoint contractors, subject to approval for the plans by cabinet members later this year.
Funding will come partly from the sale of surplus council sites around the city, including former schools such as St Julie's in Woolton.
BSF would have seen £350m spent rebuilding or refurbishing each school in the city. Council leader Cllr Joe Anderson commissioned a task force of officers, led by Max Steinberg, chief executive of economic development arm Liverpool Vision, to look at a rescue package.
The initial projects in the pipeline, under programme name EdVenture, are:

• Archbishop Beck Catholic High School to be relocated to Long Lane with an option of co-locating with a special school. Start date: autumn 2012 with opening in autumn 2013.

• St John Bosco Arts College on the Stonebridge Cross development with the possibility of becoming co-educational and option of co-locating with special school. Start date: Dependent upon wider Stonebridge Cross scheme.

• Notre Dame Catholic College on a new site adjacent to Everton Park Sports Centre on Great Homer Street as part of St Modwen's Project Jennifer regeneration scheme. Start date: June 2012, opening autumn 2013.

• Holly Lodge Girls College to be partially rebuilt through construction of new buildings and disposing of front half of site. Start date: 2013 with opening in 2015.

• Relocating Archbishop Blanch Church of England High School and St Hilda's Church of England High School on Edge Lane as part of wider regeneration of area. The Governors of St Hilda's may also consult on becoming co-educational. Start date: Early 2013 with opening in 2015.

• Rebuild and co-locate St Julie's Catholic High School with St Francis Xavier's (SFX) College on Beaconsfield campus with a shared sixth form. Start date: 2015 with completion in 2017.

A separate consultation with Redbridge, Bank View, Sandfield Park, Palmerston and Abbots Lea Special Schools to establish how their requirements could be integrated into phase one of the programme will be carried out over the next few months.
Further schemes could take place after 2015 to:

• Refurbish Clifford Holroyde Special School and Abbots Lea Special School
• Rebuild St Margaret's Church of England High School
• Refurbish Bellerive Catholic College
• Refurbish The Bluecoat

A consultation is now getting under way for schools, parents, pupils and other interested parties to give their views, until 29 October.