Staff at more than a third of Bradford schools involved in a major rebuilding programme are still unhappy with the work carried out - seven years after it started.

Bradford Council invested almost £200 million transforming the district's schools from a three-tier to a two-tier system between 1999 and last year.

But the building work left a catalogue of repairs needed.

Now it has been revealed that of the 132 schools involved in the reorganisation project, 50 are still unhappy with the work carried out.

Bradford Council has launched a probe to assess the extent of the problem amid a row over who is responsible.

The schools reorganisation was managed by Bovis Lend Lease and EC Harris was appointed to act as the client on behalf of Bradford Council.

EC Harris claimed last year that all the defects had been addressed with the exception of eight schools where repair work was still unfinished.

However, when Bradford Council carried out a survey of schools involved in the reorganisation programme another 42 said they still had outstanding building defects.

Now the Council's asset management department is investigating the problem.

A report was presented to Bradford Council's Young People and Education Improvement Committee last night.

Under the contract, a problem which happened within 12 months of the school building work being completed is classed as a defect which has to be repaired by the contractor. However, any problem which occurs after this period has passed is classed as a latent defect and the costs could be met by the school, the Council or the contractor, depending on whose responsibility it was deemed to be.

Councillor Malcolm Sykes (Con, Clayton and Fairweath-er Green) asked how much the outstanding repair work would cost.

But Mark Steed, the council's head of facilities management, said the figure was unknown as the extent of the problem was still being examined

The report to the committee said schools had "misunderstood the defects process."

It said: "In the majority of schools there is a belief that in this process works lie a product guarantee and therefore all issues should be addressed by the managing partner or contractor."

The report also suggested schools had continued to add to the defects lists, saying: "There is also a misunderstanding that once the school, the managing partner and the client representative have agreed to a final list of defects at the end of the defects period this can continue to be added to."

This has angered the head teacher of Parkside School at Cullingworth, Dr Tony Rickwood, who said the Council was trying to shift blame for the defects backlog onto teachers.

Parkside opened as a secondary school in Culling-worth in 2001 as part of the schools reorganisation with a new building.

But Dr Rickwood said the school had experienced building defects right from the start.

He said: "We have had problems with the roof which we have never had repaired to our satisfaction - it leaks whenever the rain is horizontal.

"It is very unsatisfactory to try to explain away what is obviously a major problem for schools in light of a level of misunderstanding.

"I think it is a cop-out to say schools didn't understand the defects process."

However, Mr Steed said schools were not being blamed for the situation.

He said: "It is not a reflection on teachers or the schools' fault.

"But it is a simple fact - there has been a misunderstanding by schools."