'Significant progress’ has been made towards the completion of Woodlands Meed College

During a meeting of the county council’s cabinet on Tuesday (March 12), Jacquie Russell, cabinet member for children & young people, learning and skills, said the special school, in Burgess Hill, had received its Building Control Certificate, and was now ‘officially compliant’.

Mrs Russell said: “There is an agreed list of outstanding work, which the project team are working on with the contractor.

“I state with caution that I would hope to be discussing dates for practical completion and ultimately dates that the school can move in to the new building in due course.”

An update from the project team said the final stage of the construction process would be to achieve Practical Completion – where it would be formally recognised that the building had been successfully delivered to specification.

A spokesman said: “Over the course of the past two months, [contractor] ISG has systematically offered up all areas of the building for detailed inspection by West Sussex County Council’s professional team, and we’re pleased to announce that these quality inspections are now coming to a conclusion.

“ISG is well-advanced addressing and closing out the outstanding elements from this process and we anticipate final inspections to be concluded in the near future, when Practical Completion will be formally served.”

The saga of Woodlands Meed College has been going on for more than a decade but was due to end after the 2023 summer holidays with staff and children ready to move into the new school in Birchwood Grove Road.

But they had the rug pulled from under them when ISG failed to complete the build on time.

A new opening date of December 2023 came and went, as did one in mid-February.

So Marion Wilcock, chair of governors, could be forgiven for being less than enthusiastic.

She said: “We just don’t have any confidence – we’re just taking each week as it comes.”

Following an inspection of the building in February, she listed a number of concerns, including issues with the height of the ceilings in the dining room, common room and sports hall, with the latter being rendered ‘unsuitable for certain activities’.

She added that there were ‘nearly 1,000 snagging items ranging from minor to more serious ‘ which needed fixing.

The project spokesman said a ‘small number’ of issues were identified where ‘a revision to the original building specification would be beneficial to students and staff’.

As such, instructions were given to ISG to carry out the work alongside the final ‘de-snagging’ work.

They added: “Our project team and supply chain partners are fully focused on the end goal of delivering an outstanding community facility for students and staff at Woodlands Meed College.

“At the heart of this project has always been the vision to deliver better for disadvantaged young people, and we remain absolutely committed and resolutely focused on this goal.”