Bradford Council's executive committee will have the final say on whether to proceed with a £400 million scheme to rebuild or refurbish every secondary school in Bradford.

At a City Hall meeting last night, members of the Council's Young People and Education Improvement committee gave a provisional green light to the city's ten-year Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.

Bradford Council education bosses are now hoping the authority's executive will pass the plans at a meeting on Tuesday.

Should this happen, project manager Matthew Cooper said, the Council would sign a contract with sector partner IntegratED Bradford later this month.

Mr Cooper said: "The decision the executive will make on Tuesday will decide whether the process goes ahead or not.

"The Council first found out they had secured funding for the project in 2003. It has taken a long time to get this far."

Mr Cooper said a "significant opportunity for large-scale investment" in Bradford's education system would be lost should the executive vote against the proposals. "There is no plan B at this stage," he said.

Councillor Dale Smith (Con, Wharfedale), executive member for education and young people, said the proposals would provide a welcome overhaul of schools throughout the city as well as aiding pupil achievement.

"Subject to getting clearance on Tuesday, these proposals will be promoted with delight and satisfaction," he said.

"Council staff have worked extremely hard and diligently and we have involved schools and governors at every stage. There has been a full scrutiny process.

"I look forward to the beginning of the building and refurbishment process which, in turn, will hopefully raise the achievement of pupils."

If approved, the programme's £70 million first phase will start in the autumn.

Mr Cooper said Bradford was scheduled to be only the second council in the country to start the nationwide BSF programme.

The first phase will see Tong School, Buttershaw High and Salt Grammar in Baildon flattened and replaced with "iconic and inspirational" designs by 2008.

And every student in each of the three schools will be provided with his or her own portable computer.

Over the next ten years the consortium will rebuild or replace all 28 secondary schools in the district.

Phase two of the project will include three new special schools on mainstream sites at Greenhead in Keighley, Beckfoot School in Bingley and Grange Technology College.

IntegratED Bradford comprises facilities management company Amey, the builder Costain, HSBC bank and Sun Microsystems, set to provide the scheme's information technology.

Bradford Council's assistant chief executive Mark Carriline said: "This is an absolutely massive opportunity for the district.

"It will give schools the opportunity to completely rethink how they teach and how their children learn."

e-mail: dan.webber@bradford.newsquest.co.uk