Funding threat to schools

Dilapidated secondary schools in Dudley could be left to go to rot and ruin for years unless the council can transform the fortunes of four failing sites, it has emerged.

Councillor Liz Walker, cabinet member for children's services, has warned schools could again miss out on £200 million of funding to revamp and rebuild the borough's school stock unless "robust action" is taken.

The authority was omitted from a list of councils allocated fast-track funding under the Government's Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme earlier this year.

And Councillor Walker says Dudley will not be placed on future investment programmes until its worst schools have been brought up to scratch.

In a report entitled Building Schools for the Future and Academies, Mrs Walker writes: "Dudley is unlikely to be considered in the BSF programme unless robust action is taken to improve the four schools below target."