COUNCIL bosses have the final seal of approval to go ahead with its Building Schools for the Future programme.

Blackburn with Darwen Council can press ahead with the £230 million scheme to overhaul secondary education after the Government agreed to its partnership with Bolton Council.

This decision seals the agreement for Blackburn with Darwen and Bolton Council to work jointly to deliver the £500 million Building Schools for the Future, BSF, scheme through a Local Education Partnership, LEP.

If Bolton Council had not been given the green light from the Department of Children, Schools and Families, plans for Blackburn with Darwen second-ary schools would have hung in the balance. The borough’s £230m programme is due to start in January 2010, on Darwen Vale and Pleckgate high schools and will be finished by 2012.

Councillor Chris Thayne, exec-utive member for children’s services for Blackburn with Dar-wen, said: “This is wonderful news and consolidates our part-nership with Bolton Council and their Building Schools for the Future programme.

“We can now look to the future and look forward to the trans-formation of education and superb facilities across Black-burn with Darwen and Bolton which will hugely benefit young people in the area for gener-ations.”

Fears have been raised that the BSF programme could be cut if, as expected, the Conservatives win the next general election – which has to take place in the next year. Labour claims the Tories want to slash £4.5bn from schemes across the country – but the Conservative leader of Blackburn with Darwen council, Michael Lee, said he was hopeful the borough’s project would be too far advanced to be reversed.

He said: “I would hope we would have the contract signed by then, and you can’t come into government and undo things like that.

“There are no guarantees, and savings will have to be made, but I think we will be okay.”

Final contracts should be signed by December, he added.

A contractor to build both boroughs’ schools will be appointed in September after a tendering process.

The two remaining consortia in the running are Balfour Beatty Education and BDB Learning Partnership.