COUNTY councillors are set to agree to borrow another £2.85million to fund the construction of two super schools in Burnley and Pendle.

Education officials insist that the additional cash does not represent a rise in the £250million cost of the Building Schools for the Future initiative.

Sites identified within the second phase of the programme, Unity College in Burnley and Pendle's Marsden Heights, will benefit from the windfall.

Despite huge amounts of Whitehall investment in BSF, County Hall has justified making many of its key financial decisions behind closed doors, because of its link-up with its private-sector partner Catalyst.

The change in borrowing has had to be reported to the county council's cabinet, which meets next Thursday, because the £2.85million represents a significant budgetary change.

Council chiefs remain confident that they can borrow the money needed to finance the fresh building requirements.

A Lancashire County Council spokesman said: "The cabinet member for resources and performance (Coun Anne Brown) has approved an increase in the council's contribution to the Building Schools for the Future project of £2.85million in 2007/08.

"(This is) in order to take the designs of Unity College and Marsden Heights Community College through to RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Stage G, the stage of design required at financial close.

"This is to be financed by prudential borrowing and can be contained within the previously-agreed borrowing limits.

"It should be noted that this does not represent an increase in the overall project costs, simply a change in the financing of these costs."

Once architects have reached Stage G of a building programme, the project is deemed to be at the final outline phase, where the complete costings and pre-construction bills have to be drawn up.

Both the Unity College and Marsden Heights schemes, which will replace Towneley High School in Burnley and Edge End and Mansfield high schools in Pendle respectively, have been dogged by delays in recent months.

The outcome of a heated public inquiry into the merits of using Towneley playing fields for the Unity bid is still to be made public.

Extra measures to improve the flood defences of the new school, and the erection of a fence between the site and Towneley Park, were also included this summer.

And the Marsden Heights project has had to survive repeated attempts by locals to protect its proposed site - Benthead playing fields - with bids to turn into a town green and recognise a public footpath both doomed to failure.