Council awards £160m contract to build two high-tech schools

Halton Borough Council signs one of the last Building Schools for the Future (BSF) deals

Halton Borough Council has signed a £160m contract with the Local Transformational Partnership to deliver work including the provision of ICT and telecommunications equipment and services to two schools.

The deal is one of the last contracts under the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) school building programme, which aimed to transform schools partly through the use of innovative IT facilities.

Work on The Grange School in Runcorn and Wade Deacon High School in Widnes is due to start this month and will be completed in January 2013, when both schools will be open to pupils.

A brand new school will be built for The Grange on the existing school site in Runcorn while the Wade Deacon High School will undergo significant refurbishment.

As part of the deal, Local Transformational Partnership - formerly Halton Transformational Partnership - will deliver ICT systems and services that are designed, implemented, serviced and maintained to provide a fully integrated service across all relevant facilities within the schools.

The BSF programme was set up by the Labour government in 2004. However, the coalition government axed the programme, but allowed contracts already in the pipeline to go ahead.