A COUNCIL leader today accused the Government of 'rewarding failure' after her authority missed out on £150million of help to revamp a borough's secondary schools.

Kate Hollern said she would be demanding answers from the Government on the rejection of Blackburn with Darwen Council's bid for Building Schools for the Future money.

The borough was left out of the second and third wave of developments announced yesterday.

It was given £6million to spend over three years, plus £4million to give St Stephen's infant and junior schools in Little Harwood a new, single-site base, as consolation.

Schools minister David Miliband told the Lancashire Evening Telegraph that there were other authorities with greater deprivation and lower educational attainment, which is why they got the cash and Blackburn with Darwen didn't.

Coun Hollern said: "I'm bitterly disappointed. I can't understand why we've missed out.

"We need to find out why we didn't get the money. The message appears to be that because we've improved attainment we don't need the money. That's like rewarding failure and I find that upsetting."

Mr Miliband said all education authorities would benefit from at least one new school by 2015, but Coun Hollern said: "That's a whole generation which will have missed out."

Darwen will still get its new Academy, meant to replace Darwen Moorland High School, while the plan to close Queen's Park Technology College next April will still go ahead.

It will be replaced, within days, by a new school based in the same building. It is expected some of the £6million will be spent redeveloping the school building.