SWINDON'S CRUMBLING SCHOOLS: Swindon Council admits that it has a major problem with the number of repairs that need to be done on its schools.

But it says it has a clear strategy in place to pay for the repairs and to bring Swindon's schools up to scratch.

It has already earmarked £8.9million from this year's budget to pay for building work.

Work has already started on seven schools Ferndale Junior School, Grange Junior School, Beechcroft Infant School, Bishopstone Primary School and Haydon Wick School, Churchfields Highworth Warneford, Commonweal.

According to the council the future of education lies in extended schools.

These are schools which provide a range of activities and services to meet the needs of the pupils, their family and the community.

This would include social services, health services, sports facilities and adult education all on site.

The council would receive Government grants to build the facilities and this would tackle the problem of ageing school buildings, which could be replaced as part of the project.

From April £518,554 will be available to Swindon Council to deliver the extended schools strategy.

The plan in Swindon is to divide the borough into five school cluster areas which would made of different groupings of secondary and primary schools.

The clusters will be based around the following groupings of secondary schools:

l North cluster Hreod Parkway and Highworth Warneford.

l South cluster Commonweal and Ridgeway.

l East cluster Dorcan and Churchfields.

l West cluster Greendown.

l Central cluster Headlands, Kingsdown and St Joseph's.

Each cluster will be given funding to develop extended schools.

Swindon Council has decided to pilot the scheme in West Swindon.

There are surplus classroom places in Swindon's schools and this means that money is being wasted funding empty places.

The council is proposing to raise money by closing three schools.

If this goes ahead the schools could be amalgamated with others and new buildings would be created with extended school facilities.

The primary schools affected by the West Swindon reorganisation area: Westlea, Oliver Tomkins, Toothill, Shaw Ridge, Salt Way, Freshbrook and Windmill Hill. No decision has been made yet about which school should close.

Coun Garry Perkins (Con, Shaw & Nine Elms), lead member for education at Swindon Council, said: "This council has a very clear and exciting vision for the future of education in Swindon involving the provision of extended schools in five cluster areas in the borough.

"This will tackle the issue of ageing school buildings and mounting maintenance costs head on and ensure that local people have cutting edge education and community facilities.

"We have the potential to kick-start this by doing some very exciting things for schools in West Swindon, putting them right at the centre of community life."