THE Government yesterday announced that it was axing a flagship £55bn schools rebuilding scheme.

Among the projects affected are plans to replace seven secondary schools in Darlington – including Longfield, Branksome and Hurworth – which had been promised Government cash.

There was also bitter disappointment for pupils, parents and teachers in County Durham (15 projects axed), Stockton (17), Redcar and Cleveland (15), Hartlepool (six), Sunderland (14) and Gateshead/South Tyneside (five).

The announcement triggered angry scenes in the Commons, where Ed Balls, Labour’s education spokesman, branded it “shameful”.

Some Labour MPs claimed it had condemned children to a return to the bad old days of “peeling walls, leaking roofs and children taught in prefabs”.

They accused the Conservatives of freeing cash for new so-called free schools, sponsored by parents and teachers.

Most applications are in London and the South-East.

In some cases, rebuilding plans that have taken years to develop have been axed, potentially forcing councils to to spend huge sums patching up crumbling buildings.

Education Secretary Michael Gove said the cancellations were “unavoidable”

because of the financial mess left by Labour and because the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme had been badly “botched”.

Mr Gove announced a review of capital investment in schools – to “cut red tape” – to determine the way forward, but with no hint of funding available in the future.

Mr Balls said Mr Gove would be remembered in history as the man who “in one stroke, axed hundreds of brand new schools from communities across the length and breadth of our country”.

He said: “Today is a black day for our country’s schools.

It’s a damning indictment of this new Tory-Liberal coalition’s priorities and it’s a shameful statement from this new Secretary of State.”

Phil Wilson, the Sedgefield MP, condemned the decision to pull the plug on rebuilding Hurworth School, in his constituency, telling Mr Gove: “The school is falling down.

The pupils and teachers deserve a new school.”

But Mr Gove mocked the lengthy bureaucracy in the BSF process, which meant only 96 of England’s 3,500 secondary schools had been replaced in 13 years of Labour.

He described the “nine meta-stages” each local education authority had to go through to get new schools built, each of which had a “series of sub-stages”. In total, schemes to rebuild or renovate 715 secondaries were scrapped yesterday, while projects at a further 706 schools that have reached “financial close” – where work is ready to begin – will still go ahead. A further 123 schemes to build academies will be reviewed on a “case-by-case basis”.

BUILDING WORK AFFECTED

Details released by the Department for Education

DARLINGTON

Stopped:

Branksome Comprehensive

Carmel RC College

Education village

Hummersknott School

Hurworth School

Longfield School

The Bridge PRU

DURHAM

Academy - for discussion:

Consett Academy

Stanley Academy

Stopped:

Durham City Academy (Belmont)

Broom Cottages PRU

Ferryhill Business and Enterprise College

Framwellgate

Greenfield Community Arts College

New School (replace Bishop Barrington & King James)

New School (replace Spennymoor & Tudhoe) Seaham

St John’s RCVA Comprehensive

Sunnydale

The Meadows

The Oaks Secondary (ICT only)

Trinity

Windlestone (ICT only)

Woodham Community Technology Centre

HARTLEPOOL

Stopped:

Brierton - (Proposed for closure)

Catcote Special School

High Tunstall College of Science

Manor College of Technology

PRU - Hartlepool

English Martyrs School And Sixth Form College

For discussion:

Dyke House Sports And Technology College

St. Hilds CE VA School

REDCAR AND CLEVELAND

Academy - for discussion:

Freebrough Academy

Stopped:

Bydales School - A Specialist Technology College

E.O.T.A.S (PRU)

Eston Park School - (Proposed for closure)

Gillbrook College - (Proposed for closure)

Huntcliff

Kilton Thorpe School

Kirkleatham Hall School

Laurence Jackson School

New School Eston (Proposed)

Nunthorpe School

Pathways

Redcar Community College

Rye Hills

Sacred Heart RC VA School

St. Peter’s Catholic College - (Proposed for closure)

STOCKTON

Academy - for discussion:

North Shore Health Academy

Thornaby Academy

Stopped:

Abbey Hill SEN

All Saints CE

Billingham Campus - (Proposed for closure)

Bishopsgarth

Bishopton Centre PRU

Blakeston - (Proposed for closure)

Conyers

Egglescliffe

Grangefield

Ian Ramsey CE

King Edwin - (Proposed for closure)

Northfield

Norton - (Proposed for closure)

Our Lady And St. Bede's CE

St. Michael’s RC VA Comprehensive

St. Patrick’s RC Comprehensive

Westlands SEN

SUNDERLAND

Stopped:

Barbara Priestman

Castlegreen Community School

Farringdon Community Sports College

Hetton

Houghton Kepier Sports College

Monkwearmouth

Portland Specialist School

PRU - Sunderland

Southmoor Community School

Springwell Dene

St. Anthony’s Catholic Girls’ School

St. Aidan’s Catholic School

Thornhill - Sunderland

Venerable Bede CE (Aided) Secondary