Wanstead scheme has missed series of deadlines with council blaming ‘challenging ground conditions’ for hold-ups

A £20m scheme to extend a secondary school and neighbouring leisure centre in east London is now not expected to finish until this summer – more than a year after it was supposed to complete.

The job to expand both Wanstead High School and Wanstead leisure centre was supposed to finish last autumn.

But that date was already five months behind an earlier completion date with the job having been on the blocks since 2020.

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Work on the leisure centre is supposed to finish this summer, having been given a completion date of last autumnn which itself was five months later than an earlier timetable

Two years ago, Building reported that work, which includes building a new block with four classrooms for the school and a 25m swimming pool and dance studios for the leisure centre, was already running five months behind schedule after extra enabling works were required to build a new school playground.

Client Redbridge council’s then operational director of education Colin Stewart admitted “further delays” were caused by the discovery of asbestos, major obstructions in the ground, which held up piling work, and “performance issues with the structural engineer, resulting in the termination of one consultant and appointment of another”.

The job is being carried out by Shoreditch-based contractor Jerram Falkus who was brought in to replace original contractor Willmott Dixon six years ago.

At the time, a council spokesperson said: “[While] there have been a number of unforeseen technical reasons for delays in delivery of the project, the change of main contractors in 2020 was not the main factor here.”

Now, in an update posted on the council’s website, Redbridge said the scheme was “scheduled for completion in summer 2026”.

It said delays had been caused by “challenging ground conditions found on site” and added: “We recognise that delays during complex construction projects can be frustrating. However, while many local authorities are pausing such investments, we are investing in our facilities and committed to using this time to create a landmark development that will serve the community for decades to come.”

It also said there had been “enhancements to the original design to incorporate state-of-the-art technology”.

The council declined to comment further. Jerram Falkus has been approached for comment.

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