Hove schools miss out on funding for makeover

Hopes of improving two Hove secondary schools have been dashed with Labour criticising the decision by the Department for Education.

Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, announced today that 261 schools would be rebuilt, undergo a major refurbishment or have urgent repairs funded.

But a bid for cash for Blatchington Mill and Hove Park schools in Hove were unsuccessful. No schools in Sussex won funding from the Priority School Building Programme.

Councillor Anne Pissaridou, Labour’s spokesman on children and young people on Brighton and Hove City Council, said: “When Labour left government in 2010 it had put in place a schools building programme that would have seen schools rebuilt and revitalised.

“One of the first acts of the incoming Tory-led government was to scrap the Building Schools for the Future programme.

“Statistics show that behaviour and educational attainment are vastly improved in schools that are maintained and in good order.

“Teachers and support staff at Blatchington Mill and Hove Park are doing the very best they can under difficult circumstances and this snub by the government to teachers, parents and children is simply wrong.”

Councillor Gill Mitchell, the Labour leader in Brighton and Hove, said: “This is not only a hammer blow to the schools concerned, it is also a kick in the teeth to local construction firms who are struggling to make ends meet.

“One of the reasons that we have gone back into recession is that the construction industry is suffering at the hands of a Tory-led government that is cutting too fast and too deep.

“This would have been an ideal opportunity for the Tories to show that they are on the side of the construction industry and would have also boosted apprenticeships and given a real injection to the local economy through the creation of jobs.”

School buildings are in a generally good condition in Brighton and Hove compared with many parts of the country although education officials are keen to maintain a rolling programme of improvements.

And they are keen to work out the best way of providing more school places for primary and secondary schoolchildren.

Mr Gove’s statement today acknowledge this need nationally and he has approved one free school for the area so far – the Brighton and Hove Bilingual Primary School.

It will be based at the Brighton Aldridge Community Academy in Falmer from September for at least the first year of its existence.