No money for flood-hit schools

Gloucestershire schools damaged by the floods in 2007 will not receive any part of a government repair grant.

The government has allocated £30m to help repair flood-hit schools, half of which will go to Hull.

Only councils which cannot "reasonably meet" long term school plans from existing budgets are eligible.

Gloucestershire County Council said it was shocked by the news as the county was 12th from the bottom of local authorities for education funding.

'At a loss'

Councillor Julie Girling said: "We could hardly be said to be flush with cash for education. We're in as much need as any other authority.

"We've had a good strong dialogue and we have received a lot of support so that makes it additionally odd that this press release has come out and there's no Gloucestershire place in there.

"We were not aware that the government had £30m to divvy up for schools and if we had been, we'd certainly have been making our claim on it.

"We're at a loss and we're furiously trying to find out exactly what's going on here."

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