Carillion BSF project runs £15m over budget

A Carillion BSF project in Dorset has overshot its original budget by more than £15m it emerged last week.

The total cost of rebuilding the Queen Elizabeth School in Wimborne will now be £51m, with Dorset County Council contributing £20m instead of its budgeted £4.5m, according to the Bournemouth Daily Echo.

The school was selected as Dorset's 'Building Schools for the Future One-School Pathfinder' in 2006, and Alfred McAlpine (now Carillion) was selected as the main contractor, with Mouchel as the structural engineer.

The county council has blamed rising materials cost, the complexity of the school’s design and poor advice for the unforeseen cost.

A council statement said: "The existing school has an outstanding maintenance bill of around £20m – this level of investment from the county council, topped up with more than £31m in government funding, gives East Dorset a brand new school for the same cost of repairing the old buildings."