SCHOOLS in Bury have been given a surprise £1.2 million boost to carry out new building and improvement work.

A total of seven schools are to benefit from £1.1 million this year - the remainder of the cash will be used as contingency money to cover any increase in labour costs.

But the timing of the announcement has been condemned as a pre-election ploy by Tory group leader Coun David Higgin who questioned whether the money will be available to fulfil the council's promises.

He said more discussion should have preceded the announcement.

Woodhey High School and Prestwich High School have come up trumps with funding now available for long awaited schemes.

Woodhey is to receive £200,000 to build a school hall. And Prestwich High will get £199,000 for an additional science laboratory, something the school has been seeking for years.

Councillor Andrea Hughes, chairman of Bury Council's education and community services committee, said: "We are absolutely delighted. In the past we have only received relatively small amounts of funding which have hardly scratched the surface in what needs to be done to bring our schools up to a high standard."

She said the £1.2 million will make a real difference and will have a significant impact and added: "This is a massive step forward as far as investment in our schools is concerned."

In previous years, Bury has only received government permission to borrow much smaller amounts, sometimes as low as £50,000.

But the massive increase in the total for its education capital programme means improvements can be made as a matter of priority.

Education bosses drew up a list of schools they regarded as being in most need of building and improvement work and it was ratified by full council earlier this month. Other schools to benefit include Derby High School which will get £140,000 to refurbish two laboratories and a further £40,000 for the refurbishment of two food technology rooms.

Philips High School and Bury Church High School will receive £60,000 and £54,000 respectively to refurbish two food technology rooms at each school.

Park View County Primary School has been awarded £150,000 and Millwoood Special School receives £80,000.

Coun Hughes said: "We want to ensure that our children have the best possible facilities and surroundings in which to learn, extra monies like this goes a long way to achieving just that."

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