A Liverpool primary school has warned that there could be job losses throughout the city after the city council's disastrous handling of a major electricity contract.
The chair of governors at Northcote Primary school in Walton has written to Mayor of Liverpool Joanne Anderson to register his 'grave concerns' about the impact the energy contract scandal is having on his and other city schools. He said the current impact on the north Liverpool school is unsustainable.
In May it was revealed that a series of calamitous errors at the city council had led to huge additional costs in terms of the local authority's energy bills as well as the bills of city schools and the local fire service who were part of the same deal.
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The remarkable run of mistakes included officers not informing city leaders that the council's electricity provider Scottish Power had withdrawn from the commercial market before a new deal was agreed. As such the council was inadvertently placed onto the company's standard rate deal - which could cost the city an extra £16m in bills.
The council's deputy mayor Jane Corbett, who lost her finance brief after the debacle came to light, had previously said the local authority would step in to pay the extra costs visited upon schools because of the mistakes, before appearing to row back on this guarantee shortly after.
Now Brian Lawless, top governor at Northcote Primary has warned of severe consequences to schools across the city. In his letter to Mayor Anderson he stated: "I am writing to express grave concerns around the school’s energy costs which are unsustainable and will, if unchecked lead our school along with others throughout the City into a deficit budget.
"At the present moment we have been able to sustain staff levels in order to provide the best for the children. This however will change as we seek to balance the books. There is very real prospect of job losses right throughout the education establishments throughout the City. This will have a massively detrimental effect on the quality of provision for the children.
"This situation is not of our doing, rather it is the making of officers working for the Council. We are therefore being penalised by their mistakes."
Mr Lawless said the school's energy bills for May 2022 have increased by 491% compared with the same month a year earlier. He added: "This particular month saw the school closed for more than a week due to the half-term break. Due to the warm weather we have not been using any additional energy. Yet this month’s fuel costs are disturbingly high."
Referring to Cllr Corbett's initial promise that the council would step in to help schools, he added: "A promise was given by Councillor Jane Corbett that schools would not have to bear the burden of the massive rise in energy costs that are the consequence of the council’s failure to act in a responsible way. Can you please assure us that the promise given by Councillor Corbett on Radio Merseyside will be fulfilled and advise school the mechanism by which any necessary funding will be delivered?"
Another governor at the school is Councillor Alan Gibbons, a former Labour councillor who quit to join a new independent council group earlier this year. He said: "Neither schools nor Fire and Rescue bear any responsibility for the avoidable £16 million energy bill fiasco. This situation is solely down to the incompetence of the council leadership.
"Schools could face having to cut back essential services to the children. Fire and Rescue could also face cuts. Councillor Corbett promised they would be protected out of reserves. There should be an immediate statement confirming this is the case so that both schools and the Fire and Rescue Service can be reassured. Schools in particular must not go into the holiday period with this hanging over their heads.”
As well as seeing Cllr Corbett lose her portfolio, the energy contract crisis revelations also saw the council's director of finance and deputy chief executive Mel Creighton resign from her job. The entire matter is currently being investigated by an independent accountancy firm, who are due to report back in the coming days.
A city council spokesperson said: “The council has been regularly communicating with all of the city’s schools affected by the electricity contract issue and has apologised for the impact on budgets. There is a commitment to assess the impact of the additional costs as a matter of urgency once all quarterly bills are in next month. The situation will also continue to be monitored under the new tariff.”
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