Reading Chronicle | News | Schools in line for cash boost

Wednesday, 7th January, 2009

Published: Thursday, 27th November, 2008 09:00

Schools in line for cash boost

By James Kell

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SCHOOLS in Woodley and Earley could be in line for a share of an £80m government pot.

Maiden Erlegh and Bulmershe are among eight schools in the Wokingham Borough which could receive a cash boost from central government under the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.

But despite submitting proposals in 2003 it could be a further five years until the funds are in council coffers, according to Wokingham executive member for children’s services Cllr Norman Jorgensen.

He said: “Back in 2003 the council submitted its original proposals to the BSF

programme but we were told that we would have to wait a significant amount of time before we would benefit from this funding as the government initially concentrated funding elsewhere.

“We are currently in wave 15, the final stage to receive this money.

“We do have one school being rebuilt under the Building Schools for the Future umbrella and we now have the opportunity to re-submit our proposals for the remainder.

“The Wokingham Borough is currently at least five years away from receiving further BSF funding. However the government has set out new criteria for allocating this funding earlier and the borough council is aiming to take this up.”

Councillors are tonight (Thursday) set to vote to submit ‘an expression of interest’ in the funding following the discussions of a project group, made up of council officers and three secondary school headteachers.

Bulmershe is expected to be in the initial group of four schools to benefit, with Maiden Erlegh in the follow-up group.

Headteachers have been consulted on how to prioritise schools for funding and the next step will see a

council report next spring

setting out detailed proposals.

Cllr Jorgensen said: “We are delighted to have been invited to put in an expression of interest again for BSF money and if successful, this will enable us to carry out the much needed major improvement works to our secondary schools. We want to take every sensible opportunity to have the required investment in our schools.”