NEW St. JOHN’S SCHOOL IS NOT “POSTPONED INDEFINITELY

On 13th May 2010, the Epping Forest Guardian published an article stating that Essex County Council had postponed building the new St. John’s School “indefinitely”, which is absolute nonsense.

As a Governor of St. John’s School, I have worked closely with the Cabinet Member for Education at Essex County Council, Cllr. Stephen Castle, on the project to rebuild a brand new, state-of-the-art secondary school for Epping. At this time, there is just over a £4m funding gap in the project, which would have to be paid out by the County Council’s Capital Expenditure Budget. However, given the recent change of Government and the uncertainty about public spending cuts, the County are not yet willing to commit their capital to large-scale projects until they know how much money they will have to serve the people of Essex in the year ahead. A entirely sensible stance in my opinion. This is simply a funding issue - Essex County Council are still completely committed to building a new secondary school in Epping and their officers, contractors and projects managers will continue to work closely with the school to ensure that as soon as the time in financially viable, the project kicks-off.

In a statement, Cllr. Castle explained: “Essex County Council will continue to work with the Diocese of Chelmsford and the governing body of the school to confirm the redevelopment programme for St Johns School. The costs were due to be met through selling an area of the school site owned mainly by the school’s trustees. Following the recession and its impact on the housing market, it is estimated that the proceeds of a sale would no longer meet the full costs of a new school premises, and so additional funding source(s) will need to be identified before the project moves forward. The construction costs have not risen above initial estimates. We will continue to work with the governing body to move this project forward.”