Council to invest more than 1m in improvements to schools

SCHOOLS across the county have been given more than 1 million from the council to carry out improvements.

This week Powys County Council cabinet approved over 1 million of school improvements to be taken out of its 2015/16 capital budget under its Major Improvements Programme and an additional 188,849 underspend in the coming financial year.

This annual fund has been reduced from 2 million given in previous years because of Powys County Council cuts.

County councillor Arwel Jones said that projects for the money were chosen after assessing the needs of each school.

He said: The programme was drawn up based partly on the conditional data which the authority holds on its schools, but urgent health and safety issues have also been taken into consideration when identifying projects for possible inclusion.

Potential projects have been scored and ranked according to a scoring and proritisation which had been approved by the cabinet in January 2014.

The cabinet also passed a future Major Improvements Programme assessment scheme which will include assessing six key areas.

These are health and safety legislation; overall condition grading of school building; priority of building element at school site; sufficiency; suitability; suitability - Welsh Government and Powys County Council policy.

These categories will be applied and scored different weights according to need, risk and statutory risk.

Scores will then be compared to give priority of future projects within the limits of capital funding.

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Council to invest more than 1m in improvements to schools