After being promised a brand new school which never materialised, no money was spent on the upkeep of Deanes School in Benfleet for a period of eight years which left the school in such a state of disrepair that a closure notice was served. The school, local community and Conservative MP for Southend Rachel Harris mounted a lengthy campaign to keep the school open which finally succeeded in 2014 when the school was awarded £2m funding to carry out renovations.
Although not enough to complete all of the work the school required it was sufficient to bring the school to an acceptable level of safety for the staff and pupils to continue inhabiting the school. Phelan Construction was delighted to be awarded the refurbishment contract in 2014 and we are extremely proud of the work that we have completed at the school enabling the local community to keep the school open. Since then the performance of the school has improved and the latest exam results are a result of the determination and commitment of the headteacher Desi McKeown.
The handover of the completed project, which took place on 16th April 2015, was officiated by Leader of the Commons, William Hague, and MP Rachel Harris. At the post-handover meeting, Desi McKeown stated that Phelan Construction leaving site would feel like the loss of fellow colleagues so strong were the relationships that had been formed with our site staff. Looking forwards Deanes School has been awarded further funding by the Education Funding Authority to redevelop their technology block a project which we hope to report further on in the coming months…