United Kingdom

5724 readers

426 users here now

General community for news/discussion in the UK.

Less serious posts should go in !casualuk@feddit.uk or !andfinally@feddit.uk
More serious politics should go in !uk_politics@feddit.uk.

Try not to spam the same link to multiple feddit.uk communities.
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric news, and should be either a link to a reputable source, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread.

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

tom@feddit.uk

GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk

frankPodmore@slrpnk.net

School pool barricaded as repairs contract ends with work unfinished (www.bbc.co.uk)

submitted 2 days ago by MonsterMonster@lemmy.world to c/unitedkingdom@feddit.uk

4 comments fedilink hide all child comments

At Trentham Academy, a large secondary school in Stoke-on-Trent, the swimming pool is barricaded with danger signs, while the heating system has remained broken during recent mock exams.

"It was hard to concentrate," student Esme says. "I couldn't stop myself from shivering while I was trying to breathe and to calm myself down while I was trying to do the exam."

This is one of 88 schools in the area that were maintained as part of a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract, signed by the city council 25 years ago.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] MonsterMonster@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Another Private Finance Initiative project scandal coming to fruition.

[–] mjr@infosec.pub 6 points 2 days ago

PFI companies like Innisfree usually hire sharper lawyers and accountants than councils, so these projects tend to become scandals where government is fleeced. Here, Innisfree is accused of taking dividends early then letting the PFI company collapse at the end of its term with work not finished and the council having no tools to make the PFI company's owner save it.

The bigger scandal is some politicians who ignore or deny this danger and still want more PFI and PPP with minimal safeguards.