Schools in York and North Yorkshire are to benefit from a cash boost to help pay for repairs and modernisation work.

The money is part of a £53.93 million pay-out by the Government from its New Deal for Schools budget.

The grants, which are to be spent over the next three years, will support 85 projects at 270 schools in the Yorkshire and Humberside region.

These will include extending schools and building specialist laboratories and classrooms, internal and external structural repairs, replacing temporary classrooms, re-roofing, window replacement and boiler and heating system replacement.

The biggest grant in the region is to go to Millthorpe Secondary School in York which is to get £1.6 million for internal structural repairs and health and safety improvements.

North Yorkshire is to get £3.6 million, the bulk of which will go to South Craven Secondary School, near Keighley.

Around £20,000 will go towards consultants' fees involved in putting together the privately-financed rebuilding of four schools. These are Barlby County Primary, Selby, Ripon CE County Primary and Kirby Hill CE Primary near Boroughbridge, and Brotherton County Primary, near Castleford.

The East Riding of Yorkshire area is to get £2.4 million for repairs and improvements to 54 different schools.

Announcing the grants, education secretary David Blunkett said: "I am confident that parents teachers and pupils will welcome this investment which will bring schools into a modern and fit state to support higher standards of education.

"This Government is doubling the amount being spent on repair and renewal of our schools - and I am confident that the New Deal for Schools, along with our capital programmes, will make a big dent in the backlog that has developed over the last 20 years and enable us to prepare to prepare our schools for the 21st century.

"We are determined to improve the quality of the environment in which teachers teach and pupils learn, and address the scandal of crumbling schools. This investment will go a long way to providing these conditions and at the same time play a part in regenerating local economies and boosting the surrounding communities."

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