Anger as schools miss out on £200m

Dudley has missed out on much-needed £200 million funding to rebuild and revamp secondary schools in the borough, it was revealed today.

The news has been described as a "real kick in the teeth" for the town by education boss Liz Walker and comes just months after Dudley missed out on £50million worth of lottery funding to turn historic caves into a tourist attraction.

The council had hoped to be named as one of eight across the country to be fast-tracked onto the Building Schools for the Future government programme, with work starting on transforming crumbling schools immediately.

But when the list was published by schools minister Jim Knight today Dudley was not on it.

Neighbouring authority Walsall is listed along with Worcestershire and Staffordshire.

Councillor Walker said: "We have been denied the opportunity to improve our secondary schools."

Holly Hall Maths and Computing College head Graham Lloyd said: "It is a disaster for Dudley – not only have we missed out on millions of pounds of much-needed funding to transform our schools, we are also the only authority in the area not receiving funding."