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
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