East Riding snubbed over funds to rebuild secondary schools

THE East Riding has missed out on millions of pounds of funding to rebuild secondary schools – because its pupils are performing too well.

County education officials made an “expression of interest” for up to 80m of funding last year through the Government’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.

But East Riding schools were judged to be too successful to be included in the latest round of funding, and did not have high enough levels of deprivation – despite five schools being in urgent need of repair.

Explaining its omission, a report to an East Riding Council committee tomorrow said: “To the disappointment of all concerned the prioritisation was based purely on poor educational attainment and high deprivation. No other criteria were taken into account.

“This inevitably meant that East Riding ranked fairly low on the prioritisation list, with the initial priority project being ranked 46 out of 70.”

East Riding pupils performed slightly above the national average in the latest GCSE results.

A total of 52 per cent of pupils gained the Government’s benchmark five passes at A* to C including English and maths, compared with a national average of nearly 51 per cent.

In neighbouring Hull, where the average was 37 per cent, the city council has been awarded 400m through BSF to rebuild or refurbish all its secondary and special schools.

The initial funding sought by the East Riding would have gone on the five schools in most need of repair – Withernsea High, Cottingham High, Wolfreton in Kirk Ella, Riverside Special School in Goole and Goole High.

A council report last year described the fabric at Withernsea and Wolfreton as “extremely poor”, while at Cottingham many buildings were “not fit for purpose”.

A successful bid would have paved the way for a final application for between 250m and 300m to rebuild or refurbish every secondary and special school in the area.

The report said the council had expended “significant resources” in terms of officer hours in preparing the bid.

Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart claimed the East Riding’s omission from the scheme showed a clear bias from Government in diverting resources away from rural communities.

He also accused Ministers of reneging on promises to reward achievement.

“The Government says it will reward success and punish failure and does the opposite,” he said.

“As so often, they say one thing and do another.

“It’s rural communities, rural schools – and most importantly, rural children – who are missing out as a result.

“In dealing with deprivation the Government are allocating funding to urban Labour areas at the expense of rural areas.”

The report described the BSF process as “particularly complex” and subject to regular changes, but the Building Schools for the Future project director at East Riding Council, Malcolm Sims, has said he remains confident the authority will be included in the future.

A spokeswoman for Partnerships for Schools, which allocates the funding, said: “The Building Schools for the Future programme is set to renew and rebuild the secondary schools estate in England to ensure that teachers, pupils and communities have access to 21st century learning facilities.”

She said it was hoped all local authorities would join the scheme “as soon as is practicable”, and said all councils had been invited to attend regional workshops this month.

The East Riding is one of four councils in Yorkshire that have yet to be included in the BSF scheme.

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