Laura Eden, Newham Council's Corporate Director of Children and Young People's Services, agreed to award a £916,197.75 contract to Every Project Counts Ltd for works at Winsor Primary School. The works are intended to improve the school kitchen and staff room, and will be funded by a grant from the Department for Education.

Winsor School Suitability Works

The meeting concerned a decision made by Laura Eden under delegated authority.

The decision was to award the contract to Every Project Counts Ltd after a tendering process in which five companies were invited to bid for the work. The report notes that the project was originally approved by the Council's Cabinet in 2022, but the initial tendering process did not result in a suitable bid. The report states:

prior to awarding the contract the contractor significantly increased the price, which exceeded the allocated budget that was agreed at Cabinet in April 2022.

Following this, the designs were revised in consultation with the school to ensure that the works could be completed within the allocated budget.

The works will involve:

relocating and refurbishing the existing kitchen and the staff room. These works will include internal adaptations of rooms and remodelling, as well as mechanical and electrical alterations.

The new design will mean that:

the kitchen facilities [will] be closer to the dining hall. This will mitigate the need for hot food trolleys to be manoeuvred through narrow corridors, to the hall.

The report notes that:

During the review of the works it was decided to convert all of the kitchen`s gas appliances to electric to help towards reducing the carbon footprin.

The report does not provide any more detail about the kind of carbon footprint reduction that this will deliver.

The decision was made on the basis of a report entitled 'Winsor School Suitability Works – Award of Contract', which is available in the agenda pack for the meeting¹.