Secondary School refurbishment plans in Turmoil

3.08.11pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 15th Apr 2008

Labour Government's plans to improve facilities in schools by refurbishing, rebuilding and installing state of the art facilities to enhance learning have run into problems. An announcement last week has changed the whole structure of the programme.

This will affect Hertfordshire children who had been promised new and refurbished facilities to learn in. Stevenage was just one of the areas in wave 1 of this Government funded project. The rest of Hertfordshire would have been done in phases promising all secondary schools to be completed by 2020.

With the new changes announced last week only a few schools in every local authority will be done, and all before the next General Election. Schools which will now be given the highest priority are those with the worst GCSE results.

Lib Dem Education Spokesperson Councillor Rob Prowse said: 'We urgently need the county council to compile a report on exactly what this means for the future of our school facilities in Hertfordshire. This programme was part of the Labour Government's agenda. It does not surprise me that they now have watered it down, Government never has had a good grip on large projects like this.'

Councillor Rob Prowse went on to say: 'This project has already been affected by enormous delays as the Tory-run County Council have not managed the project well.'