City of York Council is proposing a £42m, three-year programme to repair school buildings and modernise the city's teaching environment.

The programme will be discussed on Monday (February 24) at meetings of the council's executive member and advisory panel for education.

It includes a joint £17m private finance initiative to provide new buildings for St Oswald's Primary School in Fulford and St Barnabas' CE Primary School in Leeman Road and Hob Moor Primary school in Acomb as well as a new special needs primary school on the Hob Moor site.

Some £11m is also being allocated over the next three years to make major inroads on £30m worth of repairs identified by a comprehensive conditions survey of city schools in the summer and a further £13.7m has been ear-marked for specific school projects, making a total of £24.7m.

The £24.7m will be provided through a combination of council and central government funding and includes a bid for almost £7m from the government's Targeted Capital Fund.

If the bid is successful, the money from the TCF will be used to finance the £3.7m expansion of Galtres Special School, a 'pivotal' part of the council's fundamental reorganisation of special needs teaching, and to part-finance the £4m worth of planned new buildings at Huntington School to provide improved music, drama and youth facilities as well as community use.

Other key features of the £24.7m non-PFI programme include:

A continued investment in the modernisation of over-subscribed Fulford School with £3.2m over the three years

£1.6m for the council's neighbourhood nurseries initiative £580,000 to modernise Robert Wilkinson primary School at Strensall A £350,000 extension to Dunnington School and £160,000 for an extension to Ralph Butterfield School at Haxby £230,000 for the amalgamation of Westfield junior and primary schools and £82,000 for the expansion of Burton Green Primary School - with both schemes related to the council's commitment to integrating infant and junior schooling More than £10m to be shared between schools in a number of initiatives designed to provide general repairs, modernisation and new central heating £660,000 for the government's Sure Start project - targeted at helping youngsters in the city's more deprived wards City of York Council is planning to invest £5.3m of its own cash - mostly raised through the sale of surplus land and buildings such as soon-to-close Northfield and Fulford Cross special schools - into the three year project. Schools are being asked to provide around £1m to the total with the rest coming from a variety of different central government budgets. However, councillors are being advised that they will have to look for money elsewhere if the bid for £6.7m from the Targeted Capital Fund fails. Councillor Janet Looker, the council's executive member for education, said, "Over the last seven years the council has tackled the issue of repairs and modernisation head on. We have already targeted millions on repairs and modernisation with major schemes right across the city. "With the £17m PFI project and this new £25m capital programme over the next three years we are determined to continue to invest in our rolling programme - improving the fabric of our schools and providing an excellent teaching and learning environment for staff and students." The last year alone has seen the completion of major schemes worth around £6m including investment in Canon Lee and Burnholme secondary schools. END