Allister welcomes New Build for Castle Tower Special School
26 June 2012
In welcoming plans to build a new Castletower Special School in Ballymena, local TUV MLA, Jim Allister, has expressed disappointment that delivery of the project will not be completed within the 3 years remaining of this budgetary cycle.
Mr Allister teased out the likely timescale in this exchange in the Assembly with the Education minister:
Mr Allister: I am disappointed at the lack of progress for Ballymoney High School, but I greatly welcome the overdue developments in relation to Castle Tower special school in Ballymena. Can I press the Minister on that? He has set aside £21·8 million. He has said that his commitment is to advance the business cases and the design work necessary for those projects. Obviously, £21·8 million is for more than that. Can he assure us that the delivery will happen within this budgetary term and that that money will be spent in providing the new school? What is his best estimate of when that long-overdue project will be completed?
Mr O’Dowd: Today, I have announced three special educational needs projects in these circumstances. Arvalee will go onto the Lisanelly site and St Gerard’s will move to Balmoral. I have set out my stall today on what I believe should happen in the future.
The most recent estimated cost of providing a school at Castle Tower was £21·8 million. Therefore, I have set that aside as a budgetary commitment. I do not believe that all that money will be spent in this budgetary period; I believe that such a project will go over two budgetary periods. However, I believe that what I have set out today is a commitment from the Department of Education that Castle Tower will be built, and that there is a requirement for it to be built. The timescale of that depends on a number of factors, such as business cases, economic appraisals, planning and land. I encourage local representatives in the north Antrim area to involve themselves in all those matters, to give guidance and assistance to the school and to keep pressure on the Department of Education and other managing authorities to make the building a reality.
I offer assurances today that I am committed to building Castle Tower School. Money is being set aside to complete it, because, as has been said in recent days, it is the right thing to do.
Commenting Jim Allister said, “Castle Tower has already waited years for this project, so I am somewhat disappointed that its delivery could take further years. I will be using my position to apply all possible pressure to ensure delivery is speeded up. There is no need to spend 3-5 years over this. Let’s get on with it.”
