Cash boost to keep pupils warm and dry

Mayfield Primary School pupils are pleased to hear their school is getting a new boiler to keep them warm in the winter months

Lancashire County Council has set aside £5m for a programme of repair work, including £501,000 for one Fleetwood and three Fylde primary schools.

This includes £240,000 for Flakefleet Primary School, on Northfleet Avenue, Fleetwood, to get a replacement boiler plant, just months after it unveiled a multi-million pound refurbishment.

The work means schools will be warmer and drier and less likely to need to close in adverse weather conditions this winter.

Some £108,000 is being spent on Mayfield Primary School, on St Leonards Road East, St Annes, for the replacement of gas boilers.

Headteacher Suzanne Fish said: “It’s going to be fantastic because our system is failing.

“We can get the junior half warm but the infants’ half is freezing, it’s not nice for the little ones to be playing and learning in the cold.”

Ansdell Primary School, on Lansdowne Road, is having its boilers converted from oil to gas and oil storage tanks removed, to the tune of £135,000.

And £18,000 is being spent to reline and replace a defective external drainage system at Freckleton Strike Lane Primary School.

County Coun Matthew Tomlinson, cabinet member for schools, said: “It’s good to be able to channel money towards making schools warm and watertight – these are basic things schools need to provide a good environment in which pupils can learn.

“These upgrades make schools warmer, greener, and less likely to have to close in severe weather.”

The cash comes from an overall allocation from the Government’s Education Funding Agency, and is being used for the highest-priority repairs to schools.