PRIVATE cash could soon be used to build new Bolton schools.

Council chiefs fear that this will be only way they will be able to replace crumbling Victorian buildings.

The schools would be built by and owned by private firms and the council would then pay rent to lease them back for use.

Cllr Guy Harkin, deputy council leader, hit out at the proposal, labelling it "the economics of Crazy George".

He added: "No sensible economist would do this, but the Government has us over a barrel.

"This is the only way we will get capital schemes that we wouldn't otherwise have had and we have to go along with it - but we will be paying through the nose."

Bolton is set to use the Government's Private Finance Initiative to build the new magistrates court building.

But a report which went to the council's management and finance committee yesterday said that new Government proposals mean that it could also be used for leisure centres and housing schemes as well as new school buildings.

Steve Arnfield, Director of Finance, said: "The Government now only really gives money for new schools where there are extra places.

"This does not solve our problems of Victorian schools. The Private Finance Initiative might be the only way forward."

Cllr Bob Howarth, Bolton Council leader, said: "We do have some very old schools and children should not be taught in these conditions.

"They date from the last century and I can see them still being there well into the next century."

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