Four chase £35m Southampton Academies deal

Four contractors have submitted preliminary tenders for a Southampton City Council Academies deal which could be worth £35m.

Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Kier, and Wilmott Dixon are lining up for the first of the city's two Oasis Academy projects, though the second academy will also be included in the package for the preferred bidder.

Southampton's Oasis Academies opened in September 2008, replacing four schools, and split their operations between the old schools’ sites. This project will consolidate the Academies on just two sites with new and improved facilities.

Oasis Academy Mayfield, worth approximately £15m, will be located on one of its current sites in The Grove, Sholing. The plan for Oasis Academy Lord’s Hill, worth approximately £20m, is to relocate to Five Acres at Lordshill Recreation Ground.

A shortlist of two bidders for the Academies programme will be drawn up in mid-November with the preferred bidder expected to be announced in the autumn of 2010.

The council also announced plans to progress its £200m Building Schools for the Future programme. This is to rebuild or remodel seven secondary schools, improve ICT at a further three and revamp up to four special schools. The city council anticipates this programme will go into procurement in the first quarter of 2010.