Workers at Hanson School, Bradford, want longer days to catch up

Educo, the construction and design arm of local education partnership Integrated Bradford, hopes to make up for time lost when heating pipes froze and caused damage at the site of the new Hanson School.

The firm wants permission to carry out internal work at the building, in Sutton Avenue, Bradford, between 7am and 9pm on weekdays and 7am and 6pm on weekends and bank holidays.

Project managers say the revised working conditions would “assist in bringing the schools back on programme due to time lost through the exceptional winter weather”.

Educo claims the proposed changes would not cause any disruption or disturbances to residents.

As exclusively revealed in The Telegraph & Argus last week, all four new-build schools involved in the second phase of Bradford Council’s £400 million Building Schools for Future programme suffered costly damage as a result of under-floor heating pipes which froze during the severe cold snap. The other schools affected are Grange Technology College in Bradford, Beckfoot at Bingley, and Greenhead High at Keighley.

Integrated Bradford has stated that “every effort” is being made to find a way of achieving the original opening dates of Easter 2011. But Grange school governor, Councillor Ralph Berry, has written to Bradford Council asking officials to be clear about the impact.

He said: “We are not happy that we are not being told whether there is going to be a delay. This raises uncertainty we could do without.”

Greenhead’s acting head, David Copeland, believes the damage at Greenhead is minor. He said: “On the scale of things it’s a big problem, but it’s only a minor problem at our building. We don’t envisage problems with finishing the schedules.”

Cindy Peek, Bradford Council’s Deputy Director for Services to Children and Young People, said: “The Council has not received notice from the contractor of any delays regarding the opening of the phase two Building Schools for the Future secondary schools.”