Renewed hope for schools falling apart

Education authorities serving some of the region's more affluent communities had not been entered into the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme which was targeted at areas of deprivation and low academic attainment.

Calderdale, the East Riding, North Yorkshire and York were on a national waiting list of 70 councils which had not been accepted into the 55bn project, which was launched in 2004 by the Labour government.

It was aimed at bringing all of England's 3.500 schools up to 21st century standards, with flexible, hi-tech facilities that were intended to provide the best and most inspirational environment in which to learn.

But in July, BSF was axed by the coalition Government who branded it as "wasteful and needlessly bureaucratic" and some 700 projects across the country were axed, although those schemes which had already been signed off were able to go ahead.

A number of local authorities around the country, including Nottingham and Waltham Forest, in north east London, have mounted a legal challenge to the decision to pull the plug on BSF but the Government has promised to "vigorously contest" the case with Education Secretary Michael Gove warning there simply was not the money to continue the "failed" initiative.

Priority for future school rebuilding projects is expected to be given to buildings in the worst condition and schemes which tackle the need for extra places in the primary sector. Education officials in Calderdale and York told the Yorkshire Post they hoped this would mean they were now more likely to access Government money for rebuilding despite the overall level of funding available nationally being slashed.

The Comprehensive Spending Review last month announced that 15.8bn would be spent on capital projects in schools over the next five years, a 60 per cent cut on what was being invested under the BSF programme.

The Government, which is detailing all local authority school allocations for 2011-12 in December, has launched a review of how the education capital budget is allocated and warned schools would be expected to make "challenging but achievable efficiency savings" so investment reaches the "frontline".

But Alan Winstanley, Calderdale Council's principal officer for access and capital said the authority could be better placed under the new system.

North Yorkshire had been the highest ranked in the region at 12th out of the 70 councils nationally waiting to be accepted onto the BSF programme.

East Riding had been ranked in 46th place, Calderdale was 53rd and York was 56th.

Calderdale's BSF plans had included Todmorden High which in the space of a week had to be evacuated after a gas leak, had its water cut off after a boiler failure and a suffered power cut.

Mr Winstanley said: "We were twice asked to submit an expression of interest under the old system but we did not score highly in terms of deprivation and our students' results are pretty good.

"This time around the selection of projects will be about the condition of buildings and about basic need to provide pupil places."

Mr Winstanley said he believed schools such as Todmorden or Calder High, in Mytholmroyd, which both date back to the 1950s, would score highly under the new system. But he voiced concerns that the cuts in capital spending on schools could result in more refurbishments being carried out rather than complete rebuilds.

He added: "If you ask anyone involved in the running of schools they will say they prefer rebuilds to refurbishments as they cost less over the life cycle of the building."

York Council's director of children's services Pete Dwyer also said he hoped the city's schools' case for receiving capital funding would be strengthened by the new criteria being applied by the coalition Government.

Malcolm Sims, East Riding Council's interim director of corporate resources, said, however, he feared that priority would still be given to schools in council areas which had already been accepted onto the old BSF programme.

Its BSF plans would have started with the rebuild and refurbishment of its priority secondary schools in Cottingham, Goole, Withernsea and Wolfreton and was expected to cost between 80-100m.

After talks with the Government agency responsible for delivering BSF projects, East Riding had decided to complete refurbishment of Goole High on the understanding it would get the money back once it joined the national programme, which was then scrapped.

A Department for Education spokesman said: "Ministers have been clear that the end of BSF is not the end of school rebuilding. That is why the Government has launched a comprehensive review of all capital spending in schools so that money goes to those schools in most disrepair and to deal with the urgent demand for primary school places."

Cost of pulling the plug

YORKSHIRE missed out on about 1bn this year when the Government decided to pull the plug on the Building Schools for the Future programme. Over 80 schools across the region saw funding, which had already been approved in principle, axed by Education Secretary Michael Gove.

Doncaster and Kirklees each had more than 20 schemes cancelled, while Bradford Council lost funding for 16 refurbishments at existing schools and for the creation of two new special needs schools.

The authority had already spent 1.8m developing its BSF plans. Rotherham, Wakefield and North East Lincolnshire also saw their BSF schemes scrapped.