A WISH list has been drawn up of major improvements to schools in east Cleveland if the local authority decides to go ahead with a multi-million pound bid for private sector money.

The Department for Education and Skills has invited all Local Education Authorities to submit competitive bids for Private Finance Initiative (PFI) funding for schools projects costing about £40m, which would be funded over 25 years.

It is the first time that Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council has considered using PFI for its schools, but it has been buoyed by the success of a PFI scheme to provide new office accommodation in Guisborough and Redcar.

Schemes on the wish list include a Catholic primary school to replace St Albans and St Dominic's and build a 750-place secondary school to take over Sacred Heart School, in Redcar. There are hopes of extensive refurbishments to Bydales School in Marske, Laurence Jackson School in Guisborough and Nunthorpe School.

A proposal in Eston would see a new 1,050-place building at Gillbrook Technology College, which would go with current changes to secondary education in the area.

The council would also like to replace Beech Grove Primary and Cromwell Road Primary in South Bank with a new single primary school.

The projects on the wish list will cost in the region of £34m if the council is successful, but Councillor David Walsh, leader of the authority, was cautious.

"We are not saying we will get the money and if we were given permission to apply we still have to do a lot of work to see if it will represent real value for money because in some cases it doesn't."