Case Study 2: Crumbling 60s building will not last another decade, says despairing head

Knottingley High was one of five schools in the Wakefield area which has had Building Schools for the Future cash withdrawn.

Head teacher Liz Churlton said the decision had "taken the heart out of the community."

She said: ""We will do the best we can but it is the community that is deprived. The school was going to be completely rebuilt but now these plans are decimated.

"We need the extra money. The 1960s buildings are in a state of disrepair and the council at local education authority level does not have the funds to maintain them. I know we will not be able to stay open in these buildings for another ten years.

"You had a sense that this was coming but there is no other funding option available to us now – none at all."

Knottingley High has been consulting on its building plans for the past eight months after Wakefield Council was accepted onto the BSF programme last year.

Elsewhere education bosses in the Wakefield district have also

criticised the cancellations.

Paul Frazer, the head teacher of Airedale High said the school's BSF scheme would have transformed education.

Wakefield Council's cabinet member for children and young people, Coun Pat Garbutt said: "I am extremely disappointed to see that the BSF scheme will stop.

"There has been so much hard work done by staff and schools in getting to this stage, which makes this announcement even more disappointing for the council, communities and the pupils."

Carleton Community High School head teacher Robert Foreman said the BSF cuts will affect the "critical" need for refurbishment throughout the school.

However the loss of funding will not affect the replacement of a building destroyed by fire which is funded separately.