SCHOOLS, libraries and other buildings across East Lancashire are crumbling and the county council is facing a £77 million cash crisis in its efforts to repair them.

The authority has set itself as part of a five year plan to complete necessary repairs to 4,640 buildings across 1,594 different sites in the county.

But on Thursday councillors will be told that if budgets remain at the same levels as they have been in recent years, only £58 million of the £135 million will be raised to complete the work - a shortfall of £77 million.

The first year of work alone would cost the council £60 million, but county hall bosses say they can only afford to pay £16 million.

Schools make up more than two thirds of the buildings in need of repair with £44 million needed to be spent on them in the next financial year.

Next in line are buildings which house social services which would cost the council £21 million to repair over the next five years if the council could afford to do the work.

Many of the offices owned by Lancashire County Council were built in the 1960s and 1970s and have begun to show signs of wear and tear. A report which will be presented to councillors about the crisis says: "The lack of financial resources over a considerable number of years has resulted in increasing difficulties in maintaining the county council's property portfolio in a safe and acceptable condition."

It adds: "There is a further provision in the budget for repairs required to meet the costs of all unforeseen work, from days to day minor repairs to major emergency situations.

"The continuous underfunding of planned maintenance over a good number of years has inevitably led to an ever increasing need to undertake this sort of reactive repair work."

Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool councils took over the running of around 20 per cent of the county's building stock when they gained unitary status in April.

But this has had little impact on the problems faced by county hall finance chiefs.

Members of the county council's finance and general purposes sub committee will try to tackle the problems at a meeting on Thursday.

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