'Highly flammable' cladding behind £450k bill

The cladding will have to be removed from the building in Bermuda Innovation Centre on St David’s Way, Nuneaton

A sheet of “highly flammable” cladding on a building set to be turned into classrooms will cost more than £450,000 to put right, a council report has revealed.

The cladding was found as Warwickshire County Council prepared to use a unit at Bermuda Innovation Centre on St David’s Way, Nuneaton, to accommodate students over the age of 16 with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

A £2.7m fund from the Department for Education (DfE) was set aside to create the facility. But plans show there is now a more than £1m shortfall.

This is partially due to the use of flammable expanded polystyrene (EPS) insulation when the units were built in the mid-2000s, which is now banned.

The building is set to make space for about 50 students from Oak Wood School, with the creation of five teaching spaces, a sixth-form social and dining area, hair and beauty spaces, food technology areas, a science lab, a kitchen and servery, sensory garden and an outdoor dining area.

However, a report put forward to Peter Butlin, the deputy leader of the council who also oversees finance and property, reveals that a shortfall remains.

While nearly half of the funding gap can be put down to the cladding, £639,000 is relating to matters arising from “further design, development and site investigations”.

The cladding is being taken off this specific unit “due to the level of dependency and care required for the SEND pupils and the likelihood of a protracted evacuation strategy”.

The report said other buildings at the park do not need to remove the cladding as they do not have the "same level of need and their evacuation will not be so gradual".

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.