EXTRA public money could be needed to bring facilities at north Wiltshire's three private finance initiative (PFI) schools up to scratch.

Wiltshire County Council has admitted an extra £250,000 will be required to meet unforeseen costs at the new schools in Malmesbury, Wootton Bassett and Chippenham.

But headteachers at the schools reported they were happy with the buildings, despite early teething troubles.

The county council said the £250,000 was necessary to improve roads, access for mobility-impaired people and increase security.

"These measures were asked for subsequent to the contract being signed, and have an additional price tag," said a county council spokesman.

"We are speaking with the partnership to see who will eventually pick up the bill, or if we will split it."

He said the money would be used to improve the layout of the road outside Malmesbury School for safety reasons, and to upgrade security generally across the three schools.

The £38 million deal with the White Horse Education Partnership was the first ever PFI to build three schools.

The company will receive £2 million a year from the county council for rent and provision of other services such as catering, cleaning and maintenance, which will be managed by Group 4 Falck on its behalf.

Malmesbury School headteacher Malcolm Trobe said in a normal building contract the county council would have set up a contingency fund to deal with any problems that might arise.

But because they had taken the PFI route, no such fund had been set aside. "We still have a few snags to iron out, but on the whole we are very pleased with the new school," he said.

The county council's project manager for the PFI project Mike Swabey said problems identified earlier, such as the roofs and the noise carrying from class to class were in the process of being resolved at the expense of the White Horse Education Partnership.