HEREFORDSHIRE'S 14 ageing high schools - significant parts of which are said to be unfit for 21st century teaching - are not going to be given the £150 million in Government money needed for a major maintenance programme.

Whitehall has said that the local education authority's bid for the funding did not show 'sufficient need'.

That leaves the LEA with tough choices to make over what to do with the maintenance money it has this year.

The £1 million currently targeted for the task is acknowledged as nowhere near enough to do what really needs to be done - including a total re-build of one school and the extensive renovation of others.

The LEA is arranging meetings with Government education officials over future funding for the programme.

"Meantime we have to look at what we really are committed to - and what we ought to be committed to," said Councillor Don Rule, cabinet member for education.

Pilot

Hopes were high of Herefordshire being chosen as the rural pilot for the first phase of a new national project called Building Schools for the Future - the biggest and most ambitious school rebuilding scheme since Victorian times.

In the first phase, the Department of Education and Skills (DfES) invited LEAs to pitch 'packages' of work with a minimum long-term value of £50 million.

As well as its refurbishment programme, the Herefordshire bid looked to develope links between schools and colleges, greater community use of school premises and full accessibility for disabled students - 20% of teaching space is not on ground floors.

The special schools at Westfields, in Leominster, and Barrs Court, in Hereford, would be relocated and integrated with neighbouring high schools.

But Herefordshire was not among the 10 successful LEAs announced last week - all of which serve major urban areas where social disadvantage is high.

An initial outline of the decision sent to the LEA suggested that the Herefordshire bid had not shown 'sufficient need'.

Coun Rule said the LEA would be bidding for inclusion in the second round of the scheme in September, but if that bid was backed it could be another five years before the work was done.

Director of Education Dr Eddie Oram said the LEA intended to channel other money into 'major investment' at high school facilities in Kingstone, Peterchurch, Ross-on-Wye and Weobley over the next 12 months.

"We will use the £1 million maintenance programme budget to keep the buildings in good order," he said.

*All county's 14 high schools need repair

HEREFORDSHIRE last had a new high school in 1962. Others adapt facilities dating as far back as the 1940s.

A report put to Herefordshire Council's cabinet last October revealed significant parts of all 14 county high schools as in either poor condition or unfit for 21st century teaching.

Eight schools - Haywood (Hereford), John Kyrle (Ross-on-Wye), Kingstone, Lady Hawkins (Kington), Minster College (Leominster), Queen Elizabeth (Bromyard), St Mary's RC and Wigmore - were identified for extensive demolition and replacement.

Weobley High School would start afresh, being totally re-built.

The remainder - Aylestone (Hereford), The Bishop of Hereford's Bluecoat School (Hereford), Fairfield (Peterchurch) and John Masefield (Ledbury) - needed 'specific provision' schemes like science and technology facilities, sports halls or permanent classrooms.

An all-new Whitecross High School will be built in Hereford as a Private Finance Initiative project.