Contingency plans for unfinished schools
Powys County Council (PCC) has said that it is working on contingency plans to finish Welshpool’s two new schools after it was confirmed that accountants Grant Thornton have been appointed as administrators for construction firm, Dawnus.
Swansea-based Dawnus (Welsh for talented) was given contracts by PCC to build three new schools in the county, including the 360-pupil English-medium primary school on Salop Road (pictured last year under construction) and converting the Grade II listed Maesydre school building into a 150-pupil Welsh-medium primary school.
County Councillor for Welshpool Gungrog, Francesca Jump, is the chair of governors at Welshpool’s Church in Wales, school.
She said that all concerned at the school were “devastated” at the collapse of Dawnus.
Cllr Jump, said: “The site is all locked up, it’s been very upsetting. The roof is up but not the windows.
“The children and staff are desperate to be able to start at the school in September, and we’re hoping that something will happen soon so that this can still happen.”
Cllr Jump said that now that administrators have been appointed, the process of finding a replacement company to build the schools could move forward.
Concern has also been raised by the Parents for Welsh Medium Education that the new building for Ysgol Gymraeg Y Trallwng has been delayed.
Education portfolio holder, Cllr Myfanwy Alexander, has told them that “luckily” the authority is still going through the planning process on the Welsh medium school.
She added: “It should be easy to find another contractor.”
On Friday, March 15, it was announced Alistair Wardell, Matthew Richards and Philip Stephenson of Grant Thornton had been appointed joint administrators to the Dawnus Group.
Alistair Wardell, restructuring partner at Grant Thornton, said: “The Dawnus Group has struggled with a wide variety of challenges and despite significant efforts to turn the business around, unfortunately it has not been possible to rescue the group.
“As a consequence, the future cash flow has meant that the business was not in a position to continue to operate, including completing existing work in progress.
“While the financial difficulties of the group were not a consequence of Brexit, there is no doubt that Brexit uncertainty impacted the ability to rescue the business.”
Mr Wardell added: “Our priority is to work with management to ensure that any impact on customers, employees and creditors, including subcontractors, is minimised.
“That process is at its early stages and key employees continue to be retained to support the required procedures.”
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