A DECISION on £150million plans to transform secondary education in Burnley and Padiham has been deferred by the government.

Lancashire County Council put a bid in to the Department for Education and Skills in October asking for cash to bulldoze secondary schools and replace them with state-of-the-art 'superschools'.

It is hoped the move would end the admissions problems which have plagued Burnley's secondary schools for years.

A decision on the plans had been expected this week but the council has now been told that the results will not be announced until February 1 or 2.

A spokesman for the DFES said the plans were still being scrutinised and the announcement would be timed to coincide with the first round of awards from the £2.2billion Building Schools for the Future fund.

The plans would see 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.

They also include 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 is 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 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.

Building work could start on the new schools by 2005 and the project completed by 2010.

Coun Alan Whitaker, cabinet member for education, said: "We have no indication at all of whether our bid has been successful although we are confident it was submitted in the right way. It will make the timescales tighter but we will put all our resources into making it work."