WORK starts this week to prepare the sites for four primary schools being built at a cost of £15.5m under the private finance initiative.

They will replace four old schools in York and the initial pre-contract works will include creating access points into the sites.

The schools being replaced are Hob Moor Primary School, Hob Moor Oaks for special educational needs, St Barnabas' CE Primary and St Oswald's CE Primary.

The existing schools will not be disrupted while work is carried out and every effort will be made to keep inconvenience to nearby residents to a minimum.

City of York Council is expected to sign the full contract soon and, if all goes according to schedule, building work should be complete by March next year.

The schools are being funded by the city council, Sewell Education and its partners and the Co-operative Bank.

The private finance initiative project manager for York, Damon Copperthwaite, said: "We are very excited that the building work is due to start shortly. We have been working for the last year with Sewell to develop the plans for the new schools and expect to sign the full contract in the next two weeks.

"We are looking forward to the day when the new schools will be complete and the children will be able to move in."