EDUCATION bosses have heaped fresh misery on Bridgwater's young people by insisting they will NOT reconsider their decision to scrap half of the town's new school projects.

The Mercury reported last week how Bridgwater's MP Ian Liddell-Grainger was “quietly confident” that all six schools might be saved after meeting Education Secretary Michael Gove.

However, although the Department for Education said the meeting, which also involved Somerset County Council leader Ken Maddock, had been “constructive”, it said there would be no changes to a list of 735 school projects - including East Bridgwater, Penrose and Haygrove - which had not reached financial close and which have now been “stopped”.

In a statement, the department said “sample” schools, such as Robert Blake, Elmwood and Penrose, would be “looked at on a case-by-case basis”.

A department spokesman said: “We are looking at all academy and sample schools in detail and hope to set out our decisions very shortly.”

Neither Mr Gove nor Mr Maddock were available for comment yesterday (Monday).

Mr Liddell-Grainger, however, insisted there was still hope for East Bridgwater, Haygrove and Penrose, and hit out at Department for Education officials for providing Mr Gove with what he claimed was poor quality information about Bridgwater's Building Schools for the Future project.

Mr Liddell-Grainger said: “Mr Gove told me he would get somebody to look in detail at all six schools. I will write to him again because he needs to clear this up.”

Meanwhile, it was revealed this week that £4million has already been spent on Bridgwater's BSF project.

Nigel Shenton, BSF Somerset programme manager, said that developer BAM PPP, which was due to get the contract, had not received a penny as it entered the deal on an “at risk” basis.

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