AQW 842/16-21


Ms Paula Bradshaw
Alliance Party
South Belfast


Tabled Date: 08/06/2016
Answered On Date: 17/06/2016
Priority Written: No


Question:
To ask the Minister of Education what capital investment is planned for South Belfast in the next five years.


Answer:
The Department’s Major Capital Investment Programme currently includes a large number of new builds and School Enhancement Projects (school refurbishment or extension schemes costing between £0.5 - 4m) representing significant investment in the South Belfast constituency area.
In June 2014, three projects were announced to advance in planning. A business case with estimated costs of £3.85m has been approved for Scoil an Droichid. A site for this seven class primary school is under consideration. A new 1,000 pupil post-primary school is being provided for Breda Academy at an estimated cost of £21m. Work is underway to procure an Integrated Design Team for this project. The third major scheme is to refurbish and extend the ‘A Block’ building at Methodist College. This scheme has an approved estimated cost of £7.1m and is due to start in mid 2017, following the completion of the School Enhancement Project (SEP) which is approved at the same school.
Three SEP projects are underway at present in the area. At Malone Integrated College, a scheme to provide a sports hall and 3G pitch is in design with an approved cost of £3.3m. At Methodist College, a scheme to refurbish the McArthur hall building at an approved cost of £3.65m is due to start on site in July 2016. A project to provide a new 3G pitch and sports hall and to refurbish part of the existing accommodation at Victoria College is currently on site and is due to complete in November 2017 bringing estimated investment of £3.9m.
Finally, Forge Integrated Primary School was included in the first tranche of projects to benefit from the government’s Fresh Start Agreement funding package for shared and integrated education announced in March 2016. This project is in the very early stages of planning.
All projects that are not contractually committed will be subject to funding being available at the time to permit the project to proceed to tender stage.