CRUMBLING schools in Blackburn are set to have almost £1 million spent on them - but education chiefs have no idea if it is enough.

Blackburn with Darwen Council looks likely to set its first ever schools maintenance budget at £976,000 for the last half of 1998 and the early part of 1999.

But because of a lack of information passed on to the new authority by Lancashire County Council, Blackburn education chiefs are in the dark about whether that sum will prove too much or not enough.

Officers are carrying out a general maintenance survey of every school in Blackburn and Darwen.

But so far they have only been able to visit 27 schools and five nurseries.

The budget has been drawn up on the basis of previous years' budgets from County Hall and information which schools in the area have provided since Blackburn and Darwen became independent of County Hall in April. Some of the budget has already been earmarked for work on the central heating system at Shadsworth County Junior and St Peter's RC Infant School.

And cash has already been promised for work on drainage problems at Beardwood County High School and Holy Trinity CE School.

A total of £526,000 will be spent on dealing with day-to-day problems that crop up at schools with £449,000 planned for specific schemes. And £50,000 is likely to be placed aside as a contingency measure in case the budget becomes overspent at the end of the year.

Blackburn with Darwen Council inherited serious maintenance problems from Lancashire County Council when it took over responsibility for education in April.

At the end of 1997 a report revealed that a third of the county's schools were in urgent need of repair.

Blackburn and Darwen Schools had a repair cash boost this year when School Standards Minister Stephen Byers promised £810,000 of government money to help repair the borough's schools.

Lancashire County Council was awarded £3.5 million at the same time.

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