Two teams vie for £40m schools PFI

Doncaster Council shortlists Vinci/Norwest Holst and Yorkshire Education Solutions.

Two groups have locked horns in the final stages of a £40m-plus battle to build two schools in Doncaster - one of the last such schemes to be procured under the conventional PFI route.

The borough council has selected Vinci/Norwest Holst and Yorkshire Education Solutions (Shepherd/Babcock & Brown) to work up best and final offers (BAFOs).

This means the client has now expelled a pitch from a third consortium - the Pyramid group, headed up by Interserve.

The preferred bidder is expected to be revealed at the end of October.

A project source said: "This is a cut-down type of BAFO, a sort of mini version of the full-blown thing, so it won't take as long to decide the winner as the full-blown version would."

The task centres on rebuilding the Edlington and Mexborough secondary schools, with each school expected to accommodate around 1,300 students.

The former will specialise in business studies, with Mexborough concentrating on sciences.

Work on site is expected to start around May or June, with both schools set to receive their first intake of pupils in September 2008.

The present schools will then be demolished by the winning consortium, with the land used for car parking and access roads.

In line with new government stipulations, the maintain and operate concession will run for no more than 25 years.

Projects such as these are now normally procured under the Building Schools for the Future banner, a £5.2bn nationwide plan to rebuild or renew secondary schools, in which consortia build up long-term partnerships with councils and share in the profit.

[Contract Journal, 30 August 2006, p 8]