A YORK firm has secured a multi-million pound contract to help build eco-friendly schools for the future.

Yorkon, the city-based off-site construction specialist and Portakabin subsidiary, has won a £2.5m contract from Worcestershire County Council to build new teaching facilities.

The buildings will be put together in York, then transported down to their final destination.

The scheme is believed to be the first involving a "modular building" - one in which whole elements are built off-site in factory conditions - heated using wood fuel, minimising its impact on the environment.

The two-storey school building at Bewdley High School should be finished for the start of the new academic year in September.

The new self-contained teaching block will provide 12 general classrooms, two science laboratories, a drama and activity studio, and office accommodation.

Design features include central heating powered by an environmentally-friendly biomass boiler, natural ventilation to provide fresh air throughout, timber cladding from sustainable sources, an activity studio flooded with natural light, and a striking bespoke roof structure.

The building will be manufactured using the Yorkon steel-framed modular building system, which allows clear internal spans of up to 12 metres and reduces time on site by up to 50 per cent.

Sixty modules will be craned into position over seven days, complete with doors, windows, electrics and partitions pre-installed in the factory. This method of construction reduces carbon emissions, vehicle movements to site and materials wastage, and significantly improves energy efficiency.

Yorkon recently won the award for Innovator Of The Year at the Specialist Contractor Awards.

Dermot Galvin, project architect at Worcestershire County Council, said: "The primary driver for the decision to use off-site construction for this project was time.

"The Yorkon approach will allow the new facility to be ready in time to take the extra pupils from this September. Yorkon offers a superior quality building system and has a keen interest in design quality, bringing skills to the project that are not always associated with modular construction."