Redbridge admits the collapsed contractor's work fell short, and apologises. Still no new contractor and no completion date. The petition has hit 1,156.

Redbridge Council has broken six months of near silence on the unfinished building at Wanstead High School, and the update contains no completion date.

The Leader of the council, Cllr Kam Rai, published a statement on Saturday 29 August. It is the first substantial council statement on the project since 19 February, when the main contractor went into administration.

Pupils return to Wanstead High School on Thursday 3 September, according to the school’s own term dates. No contractor has been appointed to finish the block they have been waiting for.

The council blames the contractor’s work, not only its collapse

The most significant line in the statement is an admission the council has not made before. It says the delays were not caused simply by the insolvency.

“It was not simply the insolvency of the contractor, Jerram Falkus, that led to these delays,” Cllr Rai wrote. “Their performance during the project and what they’ve left behind fell short of the standards expected, and those failures were then compounded when the company entered insolvency before the building could be completed.”

He then accepted the council’s own share. “The council awarded the contract and was responsible for overseeing its delivery, and I do not seek to avoid that fact,” the statement says, adding that it would be wrong to suggest the insolvency alone explains the position.

Administrators from FRP Advisory Trading Limited were appointed to Jerram Falkus Construction Limited, company number 00820289, on 17 February 2026. The appointment was published in The Gazette on 20 February.

What the statement does say

  • A full review of the site has been carried out to establish what has been built, whether it meets the required standards, and what is outstanding. “That review has now concluded.”
  • The council is choosing a new contractor. “As soon as a decision on the contractor has been made, we will provide confirmation, setting out what happens next and the timetable for delivery.”
  • The education block comes first. The leisure centre follows it.
  • Officers have been asked to set up a regular forum with parents, residents and other stakeholders.
  • The Leader apologised: “I want to end by apologising for the ongoing disruption and uncertainty that these delays have caused.” He added: “The community deserved better than this.”

What it still does not say

  • Who the new contractor is, or when the decision will be made.
  • When the education block will be finished.
  • When the swimming pool and leisure centre will be finished.
  • What the delay has cost, or what the scheme now costs in total.
  • When the community forum will first meet, or how to join it.

The statement sets one implicit deadline. “Our immediate focus must be on getting the education block project completed in full and we must avoid another school year being impacted,” it says. The school year it refers to starts on Thursday.

The pool is now explicitly second in the queue

Until this statement, the council presented the school block and the leisure centre as one scheme. It no longer does.

Cllr Rai wrote that the council remains committed to the leisure facilities, then set the order plainly: “As that work progresses and a route forward is firmly established, our focus will turn to the leisure centre so that it too can move forward and get back on track as quickly as possible.”

That is a sequence, not a date. Anyone hoping to swim in the promised 25 metre pool now has to wait for a school building that has no contractor.

The council’s own Investing in Redbridge page, checked on 30 August, has been updated to link to the new statement. The text around that link has not been changed. It still describes the £20m development as “now entering its final stages”, and still lists what it is meant to deliver: a 4,200 square metre building with four new classrooms, a dining hall and a commercial kitchen, plus a 25 metre pool, dance studios, an extended playground, a new reception and accessible changing rooms.

The petition has more than doubled in three days

When we reported the petition on 27 August it had 477 signatures. On 30 August the council’s own e-petitions register showed 1,156.

That is 679 more in three days, and it makes this the largest petition on the Redbridge register. It has passed Save Redbridge Music School, which closed on 11 August with 721 signatures and had been the borough’s high-water mark.

Bar chart comparing Redbridge e-petition signature counts on 30 August 2026: the Wanstead school and leisure works petition on 1,156 signatures, Save Redbridge Music School on 721, and all seven other live petitions combined on 60.
Every figure is taken from the council's own e-petitions register on 30 August 2026.
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The seven other petitions currently open in Redbridge have 60 signatures between them. Six of those seven are about parking or traffic, which is the normal shape of the register.

The petition asks for two things: that the council attends a public meeting to explain where the project stands, and that it prioritises finishing the works. The 29 August statement answers neither directly. It offers a forum instead of a public meeting, with no date, and it confirms the priority without attaching a timetable to it.

What it means for you

  • If your child is at the school, term starts on Thursday 3 September and the site remains a live construction site. The council says it has “continued to maintain rigorous health and safety measures to ensure the construction site remains safely separated from the day-to-day operation of the school”.
  • If you want to sign the petition, it runs until 18 February 2027 on the council’s e-petitions register. You have to register with the system and give a name, postcode and email address.
  • Signing does not force a debate. Redbridge’s petition scheme names no signature threshold that triggers one. Closed petitions get an officer response, published on the council’s petition schedule.
  • If you want to join the community forum, there is no published way to do so yet. The statement says officers have been asked to establish it.
  • The next thing to watch for is the contractor decision. The council has committed to publishing it, along with a timetable, when it is made.

We will update this page when Redbridge names a contractor or a completion date.

Sources