BUILDING schools for the future was set to be the biggest transformation of East Lancashire schools the area had ever seen.

A new Government initiative gave local authorities across the country the chance to compile applications to the Department for Education and Skills to replace beleaguered buildings with state-of-the-art 'superschools'.

The "Burnley Bid" as it became known by education bosses and head teachers was set to generate £150million capital funding for the schools in this first wave of grants.

Even Education Secretary Charles Clarke vowed to show a personal interest in Burnley's plans when he visited in April last year and work would have started in 2005.

The plans would have seen all of Burnley's secondary schools demolished and replaced with new ones on the sites of Barden, St Theodore's, Gawthorpe, Habergham/Ivy Bank and Towneley High Schools.

The plans also included proposals to demolish Walton, Mansfield and Edge End secondary schools in Nelson, which also take pupils from Burnley, and replace them with two new schools.

A new sixth form centre was also proposed, as well as a school for children with learning difficulties and a centre for pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties.

Each of the seven new schools would have had a new name, and would have the capacity to accommodate 1,050 pupils, aged 11 to 16, apart from a new Roman Catholic school, on the site of St Theodore's, which would have room for 1,250 pupils.

The schools were also meant to become specialised education sites in fields including the performing arts, science, technology, and business and enterprise.

David Miliband, school standards minister, envisaged the plans would create "21st century facilities for every secondary pupil in the next ten to 15 years". But now education bosses will be coming to terms with the news that they need to find a plan B. Ten projects nationally were approved with Burnley being relegated to a reserve list, although it could be successful with future bids as the programme continues.

News first came through of the funding bid in August last year from Lancashire County Council and Burnley Borough Council.

It was hoped the cash would enable a radical review of secondary school organisation in Burnley to address the longstanding problems.

The problems in Burnley stem from too many parents wanting their children to attend Habergham High (created from the old selective boys' Grammar and girls' High Schools), Gawthorpe High and Ivy Bank Schools in the west of the town and too few wanting to attend other secondaries, such as Barden Boys and Walshaw Girls elsewhere.

Problems resulted in the setting up of the so-called DIY school, run by parents of children when they did not get the school of their choice last year.

Parents of 11 children set up the school off Rossendale Road, Burnley, when they failed to get places at Ivy Bank, Habergham and Gawthorpe secondary schools.