A £5.4 billion programme to repair and renovate crumbling schools announced today by Education Secretary David Blunkett has been welcomed by Bradford education leaders.

Mr Blunkett said the new cash will be spent over the next three years to bring schools up to scratch.

But there are fears that billions spent nationally might not be enough to address repairs estimated to cost at least £37 million in Bradford alone.

"£5.4 billion is a huge amount of money and I would have to say that if it is new money, it is the best news education has had for a very long time," said Mark Newman, headteacher of Denholme First School and spokesman for the National Association of Headteachers.

"It will go a long way to eradicate the appalling working conditions that some of our staff and children have to endure."

Denholme First was built in the sixties and Mr Newman said he had a list of many pressing repairs, with the flat and leaky roof being top of the agenda.

Teachers have long complained that the environment in which they work is not governed by regulations that cover office workers, for example.

"The bottom line is that you can't expect a high quality education without high quality facilities," said Mr Newman.

Eccleshill Upper, which faces closure under the schools review, has a long history of repair problems, said head teacher Neil Donkin.

"Since I have been at the school, we have had the sports hall re-roofed.

"But before then we were in the crazy position of having to go outside for sports when it rained because it leaked so much it was dangerous. New money on this scale has to be welcomed."

The metal framed windows of an entire side of Belle Vue Boys School, which was opened in 1964, leak in heavy rain, causing a dreadful teaching environment, said its head teacher, Bruce Berry.

"If you were in an office environment you would have requirements laid down by statute, but there are no regulations for schools."

Councillor Jim Flood, the chairman of Bradford's Education Committee, said the cash could mean an end to the common classroom repair problems such as heating, wiring, window frames and roofs.

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