SCHOOLS in East Lancashire are to get more than £1million to give them better facilities for learning and healthy living.

A variety of projects including school kitchens, sports pitches, new classrooms and even new loos have been approved in Lancashire County Council's schools Opportunity Fund Programme.

The improvements are part of a drive to support science/design and technology, outdoor facilities, learning areas - especially when they can be combined with community use - and healthier eating.

Schemes include £325,000 on replacing prefabricated buildings at Bowland High School, Clitheroe; £51,000 at White Ash Special School, Accrington for a secure fenced outdoor play area and £110,000 at Broadway Primary School, Rossendale to build a large learning area for the reception year one classes, to improve Design and Technology and to make the school more available for community use.

Schools were invited to put in bids of between £10,000 and £100,000 for a share of the county's £1.5 million Opportunity Fund. They were then required to at least match the amount with funding of their own, resulting in over £5 million worth of proposed investments.

This is the second year running that the Lancashire County Council has allocated £1.5 million to schools towards match-funding Opportunity Fund bids.

County Councillor Alan Whittaker, former cabinet member for schools who has responsibility for the fund, said: "The beauty of this fund is that it encourages schools themselves to prioritise what is important for them under a number of broad headings.

"This means that they can decide what they most need to improve their school in the areas of healthy living, primary enrichment, better access and so on. The match-funding formula means they can take on much bigger projects than they would normally be able to.

"I am very pleased to see the range and scale of these projects which will make substantial improvements to our schools and the opportunities they can offer to children and their local communities."

The rest of the local projects are: St. Augustine's RC High, Billington Near Clitheroe, to upgrade our field drainage system £207,129; Rhyddings Business & Enterprise School Accrington, to adapt the entire ground floor of the ROSLA building to enhance vocational provision at KS4 £106,400; Belthorn Foundation Primary Blackburn, to refurbish our kitchen facilities £58,900; Hapton CE/Methodist Primary Burnley, to build an extension to front entrance of school building to enable: disabled access, reception area and new head's office and internal reorganisation £93,440; Colne Lord Street Primary, building work to enable a Yr2 class to move to a more suitable classroom space and allowing the provision of a dedicated Learning Mentors Room and SEN/Small Group Room £22,220; Colne Primet High School, to refurbish and enhance Drama Studio/Media Rooms £61,000.00; Fearns Community Sports College Bacup, to extend dining facilities to meet new legislation and build capacity to provide healthy meals for all pupils on site £318,000.