Jarvis wins £65m school deal

A controversial engineering firm has been chosen to build and operate four new schools in West Yorkshire.

Kirklees Council has appointed Jarvis to design, build and maintain the special educational needs schools as part of the government's Public Private Partnership (PPP) programme.

Work on the £65m project is due to start in July 2004 for completion in June 2006.

Jarvis is already working in partnership with Kirklees on a £300m grouped schools project, but has been criticised in the past for its handling of similar schemes in other parts of the country.

In Merseyside its project to build nine schools was delayed when a sub-contractor quit over unpaid bills.

Major redevelopment

A spokesman for Jarvis said: "There has been some bad publicity but the council is more than happy with what we are doing.

"93% of the schools that we work on are delivered on time which is above the national average.

"But we won't rest until every school is delivered on time."

The new schools will be built at Newsome, in Huddersfield, to replace the existing facilities at Turnshaws and Highfields, at Fairfield, in Heckmondwike, and at Longley, in Huddersfield.

The fourth school, Ravenshall in Dewsbury, will benefit from major redevelopment and an extension of existing special school facilities.