New Portobello High School- Where and how?

by **Stephen McIntyre** » 21 Mar 2006, 15:42

Examples of how Prudential borrowing has been used to date. Â£43m for two schools doesn't seem to fit.

Birmingham City Council has raised more than Â£30m this financial year and expects to raise even more next year. Loans have been used for home improvements, for new childrenâ€™s homes and to support the general capital budget. The council expects departments to put forward increasing numbers of schemes that are self-financing as â€˜spend to saveâ€™. Birmingham might consider bond issues at some point if a major infrastructure requirement came up, but at present it meets most of its needs through the Public Works Loan Board, with some coming from the market via an appointed broker.

Bournemouth Borough Council is redeveloping its conference centre, with 82% of the Â£21m refit coming from prudential borrowing, to be repaid over at least 15 years. The balance of the funding is coming from the council and the regional development agency. Aims include the provision of a further 4,700 jobs by boosting the turnover of the centre by 50% and creating a 200-bedroom, four-star hotel next to the centre.

Derbyshire County Council is borrowing Â£750,000 to buy a residential property for conversion to a care home for young people. Buying is cheaper than a new build option and will save Â£134,000 per year on existing external provision, while improving the quality of support for the young people.

Glasgow City Council is borrowing Â£19m to help rationalise its primary, nursery and special needs schools. This is backed by Â£23m from the councilâ€™s capital fund and Â£7m from capital receipts. The scheme will achieve Â£1.9m in annual revenue savings.

Norwich City Council is borrowing Â£6.75m to build a new car park, to replace some of the car parking spaces lost when two multistorey facilities were demolished for structural reasons. The new car park will provide a net contribution to the councilâ€™s general fund within two years. The government had refused requests for supplementary credit approvals and the council had little prospect of accumulating sufficient capital receipts to self-fund the scheme.

The London Borough of Waltham Forest is borrowing up to Â£15m for repayment over three years to buy sites to build new schools on, with the capital to be repaid after the old school sites are sold. The saving achieved from not having to be build new schools on existing sites is estimated to be at least Â£4m.

Woking Borough Council is raising Â£62m to set up its own development company. The council had budgeted to spend Â£42m to meet the decent homes standard for its 3,500 existing houses, but was allocated just Â£3m by its regional housing board. It plans to provide an extra 100 homes for rent per year until 2006/07 through building and buying, with another 88 homes to be built by registered social landlords. A quarter of the borrowing will be spent on buying vacant properties.

by **seanie** » 21 Mar 2006, 20:46

by **Bob Jefferson** » 21 Mar 2006, 20:57

by **Stephen McIntyre** » 21 Mar 2006, 21:10

by **seanie** » 22 Mar 2006, 00:24

by **seanie** » 22 Mar 2006, 00:52

by **Gemini** » 22 Mar 2006, 12:45

by **Stephen McIntyre** » 22 Mar 2006, 12:51

by **Dadaist** » 22 Mar 2006, 13:04

by **Jean Douglas** » 22 Mar 2006, 14:10

by **Dadaist** » 22 Mar 2006, 14:44

by **Stephen McIntyre** » 22 Mar 2006, 15:35

by **Bob Jefferson** » 22 Mar 2006, 18:59

From today's EN:

Oolah, I'm one of the 85%. I believe our parks are very important and I spend much of my leisure time in parks, locally and further afield. I'm disappointed to be missing the annual clean-up of Rosefield Park, which takes place this Saturday if you or anyone else is interested.

However, I have to confess that after 13 years I have never set foot on Portobello Park because actually it's pretty featureless and boring. In fact, that's not quite true - I once watched my son play football there and I'm delighted that the pitches are remaining.

I'm not a golfer but I'm delighted that you are getting a new and better course nearby, assuming you live in Portobello, and that you will have the opportunity to help design the course and perhaps be able to add facilities that you don't have at present.

I'm also delighted that the community will have access to a new park. I'm hoping, no I'm expecting, no actually I'm demanding that the Council allocates a generous budget to allow the community to create a green space that will be of much greater value than we have at present, and a park that will be enjoyed by everyone.

by **Bob Jefferson** » 22 Mar 2006, 19:48

by **Epykat** » 22 Mar 2006, 23:34

by **Epykat** » 22 Mar 2006, 23:52

by **Stephen McIntyre** » 23 Mar 2006, 00:02

New Portobello High School- Where and how?

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