Fenland councillors among those to refuse to cut sprinkler system from new school to save £900k over fears for pupil safety

Two Fenland councillors were among those who have refused to back plans to cut a sprinkler system from a new school in order to save money.

Members of Cambridgeshire County Council argued they should be ‘maximising’ children’s safety and said they did not want it on their conscience if sprinklers were not installed and something happened to the school.

The county council is now facing the dilemma of having to find around £900,000 for a sprinkler system.

The secondary school is planned to be built at the Alconbury Weald development, where around 6,500 new homes are being built.

Under a Section 106 agreement for the development, the county council is obligated to open the secondary school before 1,350 homes are completed.

The authority said that as of April 2024, 1,038 homes had been completed at the development.

The secondary school project was paused after the engineering and construction contract sum “significantly” exceeded the budget for the scheme.

A report said a redesigned proposal was put together which was within the agreed budget of around £37million.

The county council said it hopes work to build the school could start in May 2025, and to open to students in September 2027.

The redesigned proposal did not include a sprinkler system, which the county council said would cost around £850,000 to £900,000 and add an extra two weeks to the construction programme.

The authority said a risk assessment and the Department for Education (DfE) guidelines had concluded it would be acceptable not to include sprinklers, and officers said the fire service had been consulted.

The report also highlighted fire protection features proposed to be included within the new school, including a roller shutter fire door built between the kitchen and the dining hall, which would automatically close if a fire alarm is set off.

However, some councillors said they should be ‘maximising’ the safety of students and insisted a sprinkler system was included.

Chatteris-based Cllr Anne Hay (Conservative) said she was “not comfortable at all” about not installing a sprinkler system in a three-storey school building.

She said the measures highlighted in the report focused on preventing fire from spreading from the kitchen but asked what would happen if a fire started elsewhere.

Cllr Hay argued that if this happened and children were “trapped on the third floor” a sprinkler system would give more time for them to be rescued.

Cllr Samantha Hoy (Conservative), from Wisbech, said: “Heaven forbid anything ever does happen, I do not want to be sat here in five or six years’ time being asked ‘why on Earth did you not vote to put sprinklers in this school’ and feeling like I have got that on my conscience, I am just not down for that I am afraid.”

Councillor Simone Taylor (Independent) highlighted that the Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service said on its website that sprinkler systems could save lives, provide a greater chance for people to get out if there is a fire, and reduce the risk to firefighters if they have to enter a building.

Cllr Taylor said she understood the sprinkler system would cost a “large amount of money”, but said she could not support the proposals to not install it.

Councillor Philippa Slatter (Liberal Democrat) said the proposal felt like a “false economy”.

Councillor Mark Goldsack (Conservative) said the county council should be trying to “maximise the safety of the children”, not to “minimise to save costs”.

However, Councillor Bryony Goodliffe (Labour), chair of the committee, said she had spoken to a headteacher of a primary school that opened in 2019 with a sprinkler system installed.

Cllr Goodliffe said the headteacher had told her that the school had faced extra costs to maintain the system, and had needed to repair damage caused by a leak.

She said the headteacher had also claimed the cost of installing the sprinkler system could have funded extra spaces for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

Councillor Anna Bradnam (Liberal Democrat) said she had been “uncomfortable” about the plans to not include a sprinkler system, but highlighted that they had been told it would follow the guidelines set out by the DfE and that the building would conform to required standards.

She said it would be “unwise” for them to “contradict” people with expertise in the area.

When a decision was put to a vote the majority of members agreed to support awarding the contract to build the secondary school within the project budget – but most councillors insisted a sprinkler system should be installed – meaning it must now be included.

Cllr Goodliffe said officers would have to go away and look at what it was able to afford within the project budget, and what potential savings may need to be made in order to pay for the sprinklers.

If the savings can not be found within the project, she said they would have to ask if more funding could be made available.