Unsafe Buckton Fields school building to be demolished in spring

[6Foot2]

Link: Unsafe Buckton Fields school building to be demolished in spring - BBC News

 

A school building ordered to close two years after it opened is due to be knocked down in early spring, according to council papers.

 

Buckton Fields Primary School in Boughton, near Northampton, opened in 2021 but was forced to close by the Department for Education (DfE) in August 2023 amid structural safety concerns.

 

Temporary classrooms have since been built on another part of the site and a new permanent building should be ready by September 2026, the plans confirm.

 

West Northamptonshire Council's planning committee is expected to approve retrospective planning permission, external for the temporary buildings at its next meeting on 8 January.

 

Pupils had to travel six miles (10km) away to Pineham Barns school for six months, while temporary classrooms were built on the playing field.

 

Buckton Fields was one of three UK schools - together with Sir Frederick Gibberd College in Harlow and Haygrove School in Somerset - closed by the DfE.

 

They shared the same building contractor, Caledonian Modular, which went into administration in March 2022.

 

Despite the challenges, the school was handed a "good" Ofsted rating in July.

 

An artist's impression of the latest school building was revealed last month.

 

Permission for the new construction will be sought in early 2025, according to the latest plans submitted by the DfE.

 

If everything goes ahead as expected, the temporary buildings will be demolished in summer 2025 and the playing pitch reinstated.

 

Buckton Fields Primary, run by Preston Hedges Trust, currently has temporary accommodation for 45 staff and 300 students.

 

The former modular building had been designed to accommodate 420 pupils and had 170 on its roll when it shut.

 

Two letters of objection were received by the council opposing the retrospective planning permission.

 

Proposals for the school were initially given the go-ahead in 2013 alongside those for 376 homes.

[psydii]

Let's hope the risk of using unproven construction techniques was fully underwritten by the Treasury.

[PotNoodleTech]

See what they need to do now is say this must never happen - and audit exactly what went on when that bulding was built, who approved the plans how the council dealt with all of the decision making back in the day, were they brown envelopes full of cash involved and if so to whom, and make it public.

 

The total lack of accountability at LA level needs to stop.

 

Sadly as per usual nothing will be done nothing will change and thats another bunch of millions of quid of tax payers money totally wasted.

[3s-gtech]

The owner of CM will have done very well out of it all, in typical bust building firm style, with absolutely zero accountability. The dodgy building firm plan:

1. Create a building firm.

2. Gain contracts through backhands, dodgy deals and undercutting. Shiny Range Rover on finance for making a good impression.

3. Build something utterly shoddy but looks okay. Note - make it flat roofed with a set of major design flaws.

4. Pull all of the capital out of the firm and make it go bust. Pay the tax bill as that's the only one they can go after you personally for.

5. Profit.

6. Start new firm with very similar name. Repeat.

[psydii]

Compliance and assurance are expensive. I seem to recall there was was pressure/incentive from central government for innovative (lower costs) construction/project management methods for new build schools around the time this particular building was approved.

 

Perhaps the funding was coming from the over-all developer rather than DfE, allowing for the bypassing/short circuiting some of the bureaucracy designed to prevent this kind of mess.

[bobsmith]

I've read all the stories the BBC had around the 3 schools built by this company - I'm surprised your takeaway was that the LA is an issue.

 

All 3 schools appear to be Academies and therefore publicly funded by privately managed institutions. Also looks like the academies were in charge when the buildings were going up.

 

The DfE are funding the rebuilds - but the contractor who went into administration has already been bought up - but handily without the liabilities it had.......

[36Degrees]

FYI: Caledonian Modular had been around for sometime albeit as two separate companies specialising in modular construction of buildings for different sectors

[psydii]

"HLM Architects walked away from work on two schools that have since been closed due to structural issues, after becoming concerned about the main contractor’s approach to technical delivery...

...

HLM head of design Philip Watson told the AJ: ‘As these projects progressed, we began to have a number of concerns with Caledonian’s approach to the technical delivery of the design to meet the DfE’s high-quality output specification.

 

‘Unable to resolve our differences, we parted company with Caledonian and the projects were delivered by others.’

 

He added: ‘It’s a great shame that these schools have not been realised in the way that the DfE intended, and we hope the impact on staff, pupils and the communities in which these schools sit, can be minimised.’ "

 

It was my understanding that under prior funding arrangements/frameworks the Architects owned the responsibility for the entire delivery for a new build. If they had a problem with how the building contractor was delivering, it was the architect who called the shots, with the contractor being pushed out if necessary. This arrangement was expensive, but ensured there was a single neck to strangle from the 'employers' perspective. That the architects could walk away suggests very strongly to me that there was a problem with the procurement framework that allowed a sub contractor too much freedom/power in the value engineering and construction stages of the process.

Edited January 6, 2025 by psydii

[mikes]

They can't claim money back from the scammers that "built" this building? our laws are seriously crooked in this country - but I guess they'll never change or how will those at the top benefit?

[PotNoodleTech]

I've read all the stories the BBC had around the 3 schools built by this company - I'm surprised your takeaway was that the LA is an issue.

.

 

My bad I assumed it was LA school. That'll teach me to read.

[dmj]

My bad I assumed it was LA school. That'll teach me to read.

 

The LA is still responsible for planning and building control.

[psydii]

They can't claim money back from the scammers that "built" this building? our laws are seriously crooked in this country - but I guess they'll never change or how will those at the top benefit?

 

Those sort of protections are also known as "red tape" and "bureaucracy" and the argument against them is that they make everything expensive and slow, as well as acting as a barrier for new providers or innovation.

[3s-gtech]

The problem with many innovations in building is that they have not been done for efficiency, to improve construction quality or durability, or for thermal efficiency. They have been done to maximise profit. Flat rooves are a pet peeve - architects love them, and they're cheaper to make. Nightmare in a wet country.

[36Degrees]

They can't claim money back from the scammers that "built" this building?

 

CM went bust:

 

"Caledonian Modular was a modular construction company that went into administration in March 2022 under a £20M debt pile before being bought out by JRL Group."

[southhamster]

It's certainly not the first time; Dartington Primary School. This was an effort to build something using unproven so-called "eco" options which had to be demolished after after only 3 years - it basically rotted and fell apart. A combination of over-ambitious architects and poor construction.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-29012084

[MrEprise]

It's certainly not the first time; Dartington Primary School. This was an effort to build something using unproven so-called "eco" options which had to be demolished after after only 3 years - it basically rotted and fell apart. A combination of over-ambitious architects and poor construction.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-29012084

 

We have another recent one in our part of the UK.

 

Matford Brook Academy in Exeter which reportedly has poorly-placed foundations and bolts missing from a large number of steel beams running throughout the school, as well as other various cut corners that I'm aware of. Construction company has also recently fallen into administration.

 

They were deliberating a while back as to whether to attempt to repair the existing building or pull it down & rebuild. Last I heard, the latter was the likely option.

[mikes]

They call this Tofu Dregs in China and it has caused collapses - especially when it has snowed and the added weight of melted snow has been too much for the shoddy construction. Some heartbreaking stories.

 

Am I being an idiot and getting this wrong or something - I start a scam company that sells scam products. The products sell well as they are cheap but because they are shoddy they fail after 7 months. Company goes into administration/bankrupcy but in the meanwhile I get to keep the big house and jag I could never get wagecucking. Is that really how things work or am I being foolish?

Edit - maybe I am being too naïve attributing this to lone actors with brown envelopes and all..

[3s-gtech]

Limited company - usually, liability ends when the company ends. There are some exceptions, and criminality is one of them, but builders have been doing this for years.

[PotNoodleTech]

Limited company - usually, liability ends when the company ends. There are some exceptions, and criminality is one of them, but builders have been doing this for years.

 

And car sales places. Theres one up by me that has a new name once every year or two - you can bet your bottom dollar the new company won't be honouring any of the upsold 5 year warrantys from the old company each time. I wouldnt buy a mars bar off them.

 

Sadly you can create and be directors of as many companies as you want there's nothing when you create a new one that says "hand on you've already been a director of 20 failed companies no way can you create a new one" which is the govt fault really they could do way more to stop this.

[LeMarchand]

Limited company - usually, liability ends when the company ends. There are some exceptions, and criminality is one of them, but builders have been doing this for years.

 

...and building office/light industrial parks that rarely see more than a handful of units occupied. Maybe Stephen Knight was right?

 

[psydii]

There is a tendency for groups / cliques to form around mutual self-interest. They look out for each other on the basis "There but for the grace of god go I" and "what goes around comes around".

 

This is balanced in some fields by mandated membership of professional standards bodies (solicitors, doctors, electricians, etc), who can prosecute/expel those who fall short of the standards. (this is why the Architects walked off the project(s) and made a public statement). But even then these groups are themselves vulnerable, it only takes a couple of powerful people looking the other way on occasion for the principle of mutually assured destruction (should the truth come out) to take over and standards slide.