Education Secretary Michael Gove’s decision to visit Sandwell on August 5 – two weeks into the school holidays was met with outrage today.

The visit is to apologise for the borough losing £138 million of schools funding.

Sandwell Council leader Darren Cooper criticised the timing, saying “he doesn’t want to face the music and he doesn’t want to face the people of Sandwell”.

Sandwell Council has been told to pencil in August 5 as the date of the visit but it is still to be confirmed by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Mr Gove originally promised to come to Sandwell before the schools broke up so he could talk to council bosses, students and staff about the BSF blunder, which saw most schools mistakenly told their rebuilding or refurbishing schemes were safe.

In reality, nine projects had been axed.

Councillor Cooper said: “He told me face-to-face he would be visiting Sandwell at a time convenient for us. He also said he would be reviewing his decision to axe so many of the Sandwell BSF projects.

“But now he is cowering away in his ivory tower in London. I think he is a very arrogant man — he can talk the talk but can’t walk the walk. But if he doesn’t come to us in the next two or three weeks, we will be going to him.”