Avon Valley gets Borough boost
Rugby Borough Council has joined forces with Warwickshire County Council to help bring a town school back to life.
7 March 2006
The council met last week and agreed to contribute £250,000 towards the rebuilding of Avon Valley School in Newbold Road.
The school was destroyed by fire in June 2004. The site was swiftly re-opened and lessons have continued on a campus of temporary classrooms.
Plans to rebuild the school have been drawn up and the site of the destroyed buildings is being cleared.
The school specialises in the Performing Arts and so the design for the new building includes indoor and outside theatre space, and a range of modern facilities – all of which will benefit the local community.
There will be a number of innovative energy efficiency measures and traditional building materials will be used. The school will also be fully equipped with fire sprinklers.
Cllr Alan Farnell, Leader of Warwickshire County Council, said: “The re-building costs are higher than the insurance settlement following the fire but everyone in Rugby is determined to ensure that there are first class facilities for Avon Valley. We are delighted to be working in partnership with Rugby Borough Council to ensure that the pupils of the school and the people of Newbold can have a building they can be proud of, one that will serve the entire community well.”
Cllr Craig Humphrey, Leader of Rugby Borough Council, said: “This is an ideal opportunity to provide facilities for the wider community that would not necessarily have been built under the original scheme. In particular, Rugby Borough Council is interested in focusing on an extension to the Positive Futures scheme, which works on a one-to-one basis with teenagers in the area. We hope that this contribution will help secure the scheme’s long term future in what is a socially-deprived area of the town.”
The cost of the project will be around £17.7m, with substantial contributions also coming from Warwickshire County Council and the Department for Education and Skills. The school is expected to open in September 2007.