£33.9million contract awarded to build new Ardnashee School building

A contract to build the new Ardnashee School building has been awarded following a successful tender to the tune of £33.9million.

Construction Information Services Northern Ireland (CISNI) posted on its Twitter page that the deal had been done.

The Derry News contacted CISNI to established who the contract has been awarded to but while the deal had been confirmed, they declined to name the successful firm.

Foyle SDLP MLA, Mark H Durkan stated that while the firm's identity was unknown to him, he was delighted that progress had been made – following the initial planning permission to build the new school being granted last year – and that he hoped that with a builder now in place, work on Ardnashee's new home could soon begin.

He said: “A new school for Ardnashee is much-needed and long-awaited. Over the coming years, we will be seeing an increasing need for special schools and special education and it is only right and proper that these schools should have state of the art facilities.

“The building the school is currently at is outdated. The team at Ardnashee do their best with it but this is a really exciting development – not just for the school but for the city.

“It will be great to see the new site being used for educational purposes. There's a openness about the new site. Currently they're stuck out of the road and unless you knew where they were, you'd drive right by it.

“Hopefully things can be expedited now if the contract has been awarded. In terms of accessibility, it will be state of the art and will make life easier for the children and the staff. Plus, given the vast ground (of the new site), the scope will be there for the children to do other activities.

“Hopefully, regardless of who gets the contract, there will be benefits to the local economy in terms of construction jobs.”

Both Ardnashee School and the Department of Education have been approached for comment.