“Any reasonable person would wonder why perfectly good school buildings are to be replaced before older ones which are in a poor state,” says Liberal Democrat Councillor Jenny Davies.

Liberal Democrat Councillors have discovered that as Luton’s Labour Council puts together a plan to rebuild or refurbish a number of primary schools they have not given the highest priority to the most dilapidated or unfit buildings. They have produced a score sheet based on the state of the buildings and then modified it to penalise those schools who have improved educational performance. Liberal Democrat councillors say this is a crazy way to decide on priorities.

“It sends a clear message to teachers that if they work hard to achieve better standards of education they risk drastically reducing their chances of getting up to date buildings for their pupils”, says Councillor Jenny Davies.

“Under their stupid system Surrey Street’s Victorian style buildings go from 7th place in the list down to 13th and Tennyson Road is dropped from 12th place to 19th. What is the point of going to all the trouble to get up to date information on the state of school buildings then ignoring the survey findings when deciding who to give the limited funds to?”