A SCOUT and Guide project to expand a school in a Zimbabwean community has been postponed because of political tension in the country.

Young people from Cleveland Scouts and Guides have spent years raising money for the Zimbabwe 2000 project to help a remote village community help themselves by improving educational facilities.

But following advice from the High Commission in Zimbabwe, the leaders of the project decided to abandon their plans for this year.

The 50 young people and ten supervisors are now planning to fund work carried out by the villagers and then travel out to lend a hand with other schemes next year.

Project manager Jed Bishop said: "The entire team was very disappointed, but the majority are hoping to go next year.

"Some are not able to join us because of personal reasons, but we will probably still take 40 young people.

"The building we were going to do this year will still be done and we will fund it. We will add to this building when we get there."

The project aimed to expand a school to help 400 children in the remote area, who were having to share six classrooms.

Now the Guides and Scouts hope to raise more money so they can build extra classrooms when they finally make the trip.

Mr Bishop said: "We had to take into consideration the safety of the whole group and the safety of the community we were visiting.

"We thought parents would quite rightly not want their children going to Zimbabwe the way things are.

"The decision as to whether we will travel next year will be made around Christmas time. In the mean time, we will continue practising our building skills and training for the project in 2001."