A LONG-running campaign to replace 30-year-old dilapidated classrooms with a £4.9 million development at one of York's biggest schools has finally succeeded.
Huntington School has secured £2.6 million in Government funding to replace rotting classrooms which head teacher Chris Bridge had branded shocking and scandalous.
City of York Council will provide £1.5 million and a further £800,000 will come from the school.
Mr Bridge said: "We all look forward to the final demise of the rotting mobile classrooms.
"What will replace them will set a new benchmark for a joint school and community building.
"I am really pleased that we are going to be able to build something on this site, not just for the school, but for local residents. I think it will set a new standard."
The new teaching block will include a drama, music and PE centre and new classrooms, along with a youth club and offices for outreach youth workers.
The school has long campaigned to get rid of the 12 mobile blocks, which were built during the 1970s.
The wood in some of them is rotting and splitting, the classrooms have holes in them, and the heaters inside often leave pupils either shivering or baking hot.
The school learned in April last year that a bid for £2 million had been rejected, and put in a new bid for the £4.9 million.
Last year Schools Minister David Milliband visited the school to look at the buildings, but refused to be pinned down as to whether funding would be granted.
Updated: 11:07 Friday, February 13, 2004
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