WATER runs down the walls. Mould grows above the sink. Ceiling tiles rot from the damp. This is not a description of a squat or a slum, but of two York schools where children are taught.

Hob Moor Junior and Infant Schools are made of tin. Built in the post-war austerity years they were never intended to be anything more than a stop-gap measure. Scandalously, they are still in use nearly half a century later.

Meanwhile, pupils at Fulford St Oswald's Primary School are being taught in cramped classrooms. Their canteen is so run down it does not meet environmental health regulations.

And those who attend St Barnabas's CE Primary School cannot play a game of football until a nearby field is cleared of dog mess.

This is how we treat our children in the 21st century. It is shameful.

The staff and pupils have resolutely risen above these squalid conditions. They have done their best to improve their environment wherever possible. Hob Moor Junior School's wonderful wildlife garden won an Evening Press Proud To Be York Award.

But these efforts cannot hide the fact that all four schools are inadequate.

What of the Government's rallying cry: "education, education, education"? Ministers certainly recognise the problem of dilapidated schools: back in September 1997, Tony Blair announced that a £2 billion fund had been set up for improving school buildings.

And only last month, Education Secretary David Blunkett announced another £6 billion for refurbishing British schools.

Yet York's mouldy, cramped schools have yet to see any of this cash. Four times City of York Council has applied for permission to go ahead with an £8 million regeneration programme. Four times it has been turned down.

The fifth application is now in. This simply must meet ministerial approval. It is time for the Government to deliver on its promises. It is time our children thrived thanks to, not in spite of, their school surroundings.