£80 Million of School Repairs Scrapped

It looks like £80,000,000 improvements to Devon schools won't be going ahead anymore.

The Government says the national scheme - which would have seen improvements to hundreds of schools across the country - is too expensive, so has scrapped it.

The leader of Devon County Council, John Hart, said: "I share the schools' disappointment at this news. However we must recognise that the BSF programme introduced by the last Labour Government was very bureaucratic, expensive to run and poor value for money. We applied because at the time that was the only way we could get the money to rebuild our schools.

"They still need modernisation and we will be lobbying strongly for the funds to do that, not only for the good of the schools and their staff and students, but because the economies of those towns will benefit from the financial boost and the employment opportunities the developments will bring.

"George Osborne has made it clear that capital spending will still go ahead if the economic benefits are clear and we would submit the communities in Tiverton, Ilfracombe, Chulmleigh, Dartmouth and Torrington would benefit considerably from this major construction."