FOUR East Lancashire primary schools are celebrating after getting a massive government cash boost.

Three Blackburn schools will receive almost £1.2million between them to build new facilities to be used by pupils and the local communities.

Audley Junior, St Michael with St John primary and Wensley Fold CE primary schools will each get a new centre for sports and arts.

And Marsden Community School, Nelson, which is also currently undergoing a massive refurbishment, will also be receiving big benefits from the scheme.

Teaching staff and local political leaders welcomed the cash boost, which the education minister Jacqui Smith described as being "at the heart of their local communities".

Mrs Gaynor Stubbs, head at St Michael with St John, said the grants were a "superb" opportunity for the school.

She said the money would be used to improve sport and arts facilities, but that these benefits would also be passed on to the local community which would be able to use the building out of school hours events.

The nationwide Space for Sport and the Arts scheme will see a total of £130million spent on 350 schools across the country.

Mrs Stubbs said: "The space will be for sports and the arts and we will use it during the day, and after school and in the holidays it will be used for the community. "It will be a great facility for the school but, even better, it will be for the local community too because there is nowhere in the community for people to meet."

Marsden head Mrs Janet Taylor said: "We are absolutely over the moon because we have put up with such poor facilities for so long and now we are going to be state of the art."

Mrs Taylor said: "This will allow us to carry out proper PE lessons.

"We have one school hall for 14 classes."

Details of the schemes are still being worked out and will be submitted to the government for final approval.

Coun Bill Taylor, Blackburn with Darwen Council executive member for education, said: "We wanted to try and locate this opportunity in places where not only the school directly benefits but the community benefits too."

Coun Taylor said the schools had an important place within the local community not just providing formal education.

He added: "The aim is to give kids long term interests with the arts and sport, making sure they use their leisure time constructively."