COSTS of ‘picking up the pieces’ following the collapse of company Carillion, which worked for the county council, will be ‘very significant’ but won’t be known until the autumn.

Oxfordshire County Council decided to pull out of a £500m outsourcing deal with the firm in July 2017, worried about underperformance and the structure of its property contract.

The company carried out work in the council’s property services, on council buildings and other work including building school extensions.

But the firm went bust in January, meaning the council had to bring forward exit plans which would have been completed this month.

The council said it has already spent £1.7m fixing problems with its buildings after work by Carillion and to find replacement contractors to continue the work.

School buildings which were left incomplete by Carillion or its subcontractors at its collapse included work at Matthew Arnold School in Oxford and Marcham Primary School, near Abingdon.

Other repairs were left incomplete at six adult day centres, including one on The Slade in Oxford. All of those works have now resumed.

Alexandra Bailey, the council’s director of capital investment and delivery, said: “The collapse of Carillion has created financial and legal difficulties related to our properties, which we are working through in detail.

“We don’t yet know what the total cost will be but it will be very significant.

“I know this uncertainty is having an impact on service users and staff who use our buildings and I am sorry about the disruption and uncertainty this has caused.

“We have no choice but to go through each issue systematically and come up with a long-term recovery plan.”

In March, school pupils stuck in temporary Portakabins at Wallingford’s Fir Tree School because of Carillion’s collapse demanded action from the council.

Pupil Jessica Titchener said: “The toilets are out of order and the Portakabins are noisy – especially when it rains.”

At the time, Councillor Lorraine Lindsay-Gale, who is cabinet member for property, cultural and community services, said the council was looking to get work back on track and acknowledged the ‘awful situation’.

Part of the £1.7m already spent has gone on treating defects that might appear in buildings and ensuring the projects worked on by Carillion comply with health and safety requirements.

The county council signed its contract with Carillion in 2012 and spent £148m with the outsourcing giant before its collapse.

It said it is now looking to team up with councils and public service organisations ahead a Local Government Association event in October.

The county council’s audit and governance committee will look at the issue at a meeting next Wednesday.

Nick Carter, the committee’s chairman, said: “We need to know the real costs.”