Building Schools For The Future

A new court battle is on the cards as Sandwell continues its fight to save its £125m school modernisation plans.

Council leader Councillor Darren Cooper is again set to call in lawyers after Education Secretary Michael Gove seemingly ignored a High Court ruling ordering him to rethink a decision to scrap ten rebuilds.

Mr Gove in the summer said he was "not minded" to fund the Sandwell Ten, scheduled under a programme called Building Schools for the Future.

He said his hands were tied because he didn't have enough information about the state of schools elsewhere in the country to make a comparison.

But Councillor Cooper accused the Government of bad faith and said he was left with little choice but to return to court.

He said: "A High Court judge said the Government had acted unlawfully and accused Michael Gove of an abuse of power, ordering it to look again at each individual school.

"He didn't tell it to come up with a load of nonsense about the condition of schools elsewhere.

"In my opinion they have acted in bad faith and are forcing us to go back to court.

"This is too important for the future of the borough's children to simply ignore. Our children need decent schools to get the best start in life.

The council is waiting for the Government to respond before going ahead with its legal action.

The council's Chief Executive Jan Britton has also written to the Government spelling out the need for investment and re-construction in each of the schools.

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