£150M SCHOOLS PLAN

Up to £150m could be invested in rebuilding and refurbishing all of Derby's secondary schools over the next few years. Eleven of the city's secondary schools will have money spent on them, with the likelihood that at least three could be totally rebuilt or even resited. The city council has been asked to come up with a shopping list for the Government and is in the early stages of consulting with schools, architects and surveyors. If the list is given the green light, it will be the biggest investment in schools ever seen in the city and comes on top of a £44m private finance project to rebuild five city schools, which is already under way.

The £44m initiative already includes the complete rebuilding of two city secondaries - High View School, in Breadsall Hilltop, and Merrill College, in Shelton Lock. The latest initiative, which could be worth up to £150m but is expected to be nearer £100m, could also be carried out using private finance money, where a contractor carries out the work and then the city council leases back the buildings, but the Government has yet to make that clear. The Government's Building Schools for the Future project aims to provide 21st-century facilities for every secondary pupil in the country over the 10 to 15 years from 2005.

All schools will feature on the list to some degree, with Lees Brook Community Sports College, in Chaddesden, a definite for a complete £20m rebuild. The school, in Morley Road, has been repeatedly criticised by Government inspectors for its poor state and lack of facilities. It is also possible that Noel-Baker Community School, in Bracknell Drive, Alvaston; Littleover Community School, in Pastures Hill; and Bemrose Community School, in Uttoxeter New Road, could be rebuilt. Secondary provision at special schools and the Royal School for the Deaf, in Ashbourne Road, will also be eligible for inclusion in the shopping list.

Councillors have approved £156,833 worth of improvement work at four schools. A total of £145,441 will come from the council's modernisation programme and the rest must be found by the schools themselves. Cavendish Close Infant School, in Wood Road, Chaddesden will receive £55,220 towards the £60,000 cost of a new heating system after a burst pipe in the under-floor heating in the hall area disrupted heating supplies to the rest of the school. The project, which includes the installation of floor-standing heaters, is intended to bypass the existing pipes.

The other building projects are at Pear Tree Junior School, in Pear Tree Street, where timber in the roof has dry rot and needs to be propped on health and safety grounds at a cost of £30,000, ahead of repair work to the ceilings. At Reigate Primary School, in Reigate Drive, Mackworth, £18,513 is to be spent replacing a waste drainage system following the collapse of a sewer. And a total of £48,320 is being spent to renovate glazing and purchase a temporary boiler for the pupil referral unit based at the former Village Community School site in Village Street, Normanton.