A COUNCILLOR has asked how many small rural schools could have been saved from closure for the £58.8m the council will eventually spend on Ysgol Penweddig.
Llanfarian councillor Alun Lloyd Jones has this week expressed dismay at the news that the Aberystwyth Welsh-medium secondary school, which was constructed in 1999, will eventually cost Ceredigion taxpayers almost five times its actual value.
It comes after figures revealed in the Cambrian News last week show Ceredigion County Council will have paid £58.8m when the final payment is made in 2030/31 due to a Private Financial Initiative, despite the capital value of the school being just £12m.
“I have always opposed any PFI schemes as they never have given value for money and never will,” Cllr Jones said this week. “Except for the developers and money providers of course.”
Of the 157 school closures across Wales in the last 10 years, 20 of them were in Ceredigion, the highest amount in Wales, with Powys seeing the second highest amount of closures at 18.
Cllr Jones, who has been a staunch opponent of the closure of small rural schools, said the money could have been better spent on saving or improving these schools.
“Just think for a minute how many of our small rural schools could maybe have stayed open, or had investments in the school," he said.
A Ceredigion County Council spokesperson said: “The PFI scheme enabled the council to have a new school built utilising available grant funding from Welsh Government at the time. A significant annual revenue cost within the scheme is the facilities management side which includes the running costs of the building which tend to increase each year, this includes maintenance, repair, caretaking, catering and cleaning. These aspects have also been subject to value for money testing.
“There is also interest on top of the initial capital outlay and under the terms of the lease the building reverts to the council at the end of the agreement.”
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