Tameside Building Schools for the Future - Preferred Bidder

Colour : urban design limited further honed their attitude to transformational educational design with ground-breaking proposals for St Damians RC Science College, Samuel Laycock School and Ashton Academy in Tameside, east of Manchester.

This has been rewarded as Carillion and its joint venture partners the Local Education Partnership's (LEP) appointment as the preferred bidder on the £300m Tameside Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. The LEP will initially deliver 12 secondary and special schools, valued at £220m, in the current wave of the BSF programme. John McDonough, Carillion chief executive, said: “I am particularly pleased that our proposals for this programme align closely with Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council's vision to provide transformational learning that raises the aspirations and expectations of the people of Tameside.”

Fundamental to this alignment has been the understanding and synthesis of educational values and opportunities into the external landscape of the sample schools. The success marks 3 wins out of 4 bids that Colour-UDL have undertaken with Carillion.

Councillor Roy Oldham, executive leader of Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council said: “This project represents the best opportunity to invest in our schools in generations. Not only will it transform buildings, it will also enable us to improve the educational attainment for young people, providing them with more opportunities to access education, training and employment.”

Construction work will begin in mid 2008 and will be completed by the end of 2010. The appointment may also deliver other community and regeneration projects, subject to receiving the necessary approvals