Renfrewshire Council faces £75m bill after school built too small

A council that miscalculated the number of places needed for pupils at a new school will spend at least £75m fixing the error.

Dargavel Primary in Bishopton, Renfrewshire, opened last year with a capacity of 548.

But Renfrewshire Council then revealed a planning error meant about 1,100 primary school age places would be needed in the next decade.

Officials said a new primary school and high school extension are needed.

A report by Renfrewshire Council said the cost of a new primary school in Dargavel, capable of accommodating 800 pupils, would be up to £45m.

In addition, an expansion of Park Mains High School in Erskine, to accommodate 400 extra pupils, would also be required with an estimated cost of up to £30m.

The council said revised projections had found the primary school roll could eventually reach a maximum of 1,500.

But this figure is not currently reliable as it is based on only one year of live pupil data.

The cost of the new primary school will be offset by contributions from the developers of the Dargavel village, a new housing project being built on the site of the former Royal Ordnance Factory in Bishopton.

However, a report from the council suggests the rest of the money would need to be in the form of loans and this would result in annual borrowing costs in the region of £4m a year.

Renfrewshire Council leader Iain Nicolson said: "It is important we get the right solution in place to continue to provide a high-quality education for young people in the area and engage with the parent councils and wider school community as these plans progress.

"It's right we provide an outline of the current estimated building costs now to help everyone understand the scale of the challenge ahead while detailed costs are developed as design work is finalised and these will be brought forward for full consideration."

Renfrewshire Council has spent £2m on six modular classrooms, with space for 198 pupils, at the existing Dargavel Primary as a short-term solution to deal with demand.

But council bosses admit demand for school places at Dargavel Primary "is likely to exceed the increased capacity created by the modular classrooms" by August 2024.

The local authority previously predicted the school roll at Dargavel, which cost £18m to construct, would not exceed 430.

Steven Quinn, the council's director of children's services, last year said he was "very sorry" for the error and pledged that a full review of the mistake would be carried out.