A BID to attract £10m of Government and private sector investment for school improvement in Darlington will be submitted later this year.

Darlington Borough Council has appointed consultants Deloitte and Touche to help to produce an initial bid to unlock up to £10.2m of extra funding through a private finance initiative.

The scheme will see private companies enter a 25-year contract with the borough council to provide money towards building new schools, refurbishing existing ones and taking care of services such as maintenance and cleaning.

Darlington council will not pay for the initial investment, but will be allowed to pay an agreed sum to the contractor over the life of the scheme.

The Department for Education has invited the local authority to submit an outline business case for the improvement of four schools in Darlington.

The proposals are for Beaumont Hill Special School and Harrowgate Hill Infant School to be replaced, while Haughton Community School and Springfield Primary School are to be refurbished.

It is envisaged that the scheme will provide a new Beaumont Hill School, with modern facilities, on two sites, next to Haughton and Springfield.

The new Harrogate Hill Infant School will be built next to the existing junior school.

Geoff Pennington, the council's director of education, described the private finance bid as an "exciting" project for Darlington.

"The scheme allows us to build further on our successes of improving schools and raising achievement, while at the same time focusing on educational inclusion," he said.

"We are still at a very early stage with our plans and we must carry out consultation with school governors, head teachers, teaching and non-teaching staff at schools, to ensure that everyone understands the scheme and agrees with the outline business case."

The outline business case must demonstrate that the scheme has proper support, it is well thought out, provides value for money and the council is capable of delivery.

Once approval is given, the council will need to follow a formal European Union procurement progress to select a partner to implement the scheme.

That should be achieved in the financial year 2002/03, with a one-year extension to March 31, 2004, if necessary.