MUCH as I regret that Darlington will not be receiving the money it was hoping for to renovate three local schools, the crocodile tears being shed over this by some local Labour politicians somehow fail to move me.

Labour left a huge black hole in our public finances: it simply did not have the funds to honour its school building spending pledges.

By falsely raising the hopes of local children and parents by promising new school buildings which it had no hope of providing, the Labour Party has shown us why it deserves its place in the political wilderness.

The previous government’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme was bureaucratic and wasteful. It was characterised by massive overspends, lengthy delays, botched construction projects and needless bureaucracy.

Local Labour politicians complain about “not getting the money we were promised”. Yet we now know this BSF money to Darlington was not promised, no contracts had been signed and, in any case, the money simply wasn’t there.

The Labour government promised to spend money it did not have. Raising false hopes was dishonest and cynical. We now have a coalition Government which is prepared to be honest about the difficulties we face and is prepared to do something about them.

Councillor Mike Barker, Liberal Democrat, Darlington Borough Council.

WE are astonished at the outburst by Darlington MP Jenny Chapman in respect of the deletion of funding for the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme (Echo, July 6).

In her pre-election statements she told residents she had secured £57m of Government (taxpayer) money to build three new schools in the borough of Darlington at Hurworth, Longfield and Branksome.

Nothing could have been further from the truth. On investigation, the only commitment she received from the Labour Government was to allow Darlington to bid, repeat bid, earlier than the planned 2013 for funding.

There was no money promised, nor was there any money set aside for these schools.

In fact, the fund Darlington was encouraged to bid for was limited to £41m and there were 18 other applicants in the bidding process.

Darlington has not yet submitted a bid and would not have done so until later in the year. The MP raised the expectations of parents, children and educationalists in the areas of these three schools without validity or contractual arrangement in place.

She needs to apologise now to the people of Darlington she has used in her electioneering to be MP. Trust, well that might be a long time coming.

Councillor Heather Scott, Conservative Group Leader, Darlington Borough Council, and Councillor Charles Johnson, Chairman, South Durham Conservatives.