There have also been suggestions that the TEP should be scaled down, or have bits shaved off to save money. Or that the Les Varendes school should be invested in to avoid having to move students to La Mare. 

Express sat down with the President of ESC, Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen, to find out whether these suggestions are viable, from the Committee’s point of view. 

Expense 

The first idea she spoke on was that it would be easier and cheaper to invest in the Les Varendes Sixth Form Centre instead of moving students to La Mare de Carteret. 

“That's not the way the Committee sees it. The facts don't support the assertions that the detractors are making, and this speaks to a point of misleading the public in terms of giving them absolute clarity about why decisions have been made and why choices have been made,” she said. 

"The claims that have been made would compromise the outcomes for our young people... and would not deliver value for our taxpayer because it's much more expensive than the people claiming.” 

When pushed on why it would be so expensive to keep students at Les Varendes, Deputy Dudley-Owen said: 

“The site is complex. There's not as much land in state ownership as people might believe. It's an ageing facility now. To extend the building to deal with the amount of students coming in at 11-16 would require millions. [This would be for] the key facilities that people would ordinarily expect in a modern school, such as social space, any rooms for specialist interventions and even rooms for meeting one to one with staff and parents.  

“[For a lower price] we'd be delivering a significantly compromised facility, as opposed to moving the sixth form temporarily to [La Mare de Carteret} for a cost of less than £150,000.” 

Reduce, reduce, reduce 

The idea that parts of the TEP – which will cost upwards of £110million, taking into account inflation - could be shaved off to save money would add more delay to an already delayed project, according to Deputy Dudley-Owen. 

"In terms of delivery, the States have agreed twice now that they want to deliver education in the way that we’ve designed. To look at the campus and to change elements of it now, by removing bits of it and never delivering them, would significantly change the intended and agreed delivery model that the States want, and in of itself will cause delay. 

"This would cause additional cost and prolong the amount of time that students are in facilities which are substandard.” 

RG Falla were the original contractors for post-16 education plans but were dropped in the early stages of the programme.  

The collapsed contractor saw most of its staff and business absorbed by the newly named Breton Group. Its Director recently claimed in the media that millions could be knocked off the cost of delivering the TEP. 

"It's interesting to hear comments that are in the public domain, that people think that the work could be done for cheaper,” said Deputy Dudley-Owen. 

“We've already gone out to test our prices in the open market, because of course we got very far down the line with the preferred tender construction business.  

“That then, very sadly, went into administration. So, we've already done our market testing and we continue to test and it will always be thus that you will have individuals saying that they can do it for cheaper who may not have the knowledge of the plans that others do.” 

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