County schools face massive fall in pupils

The money will be needed to "reorganise" secondary education in the county. Shropshire Council's finance chief Laura Rowley said the authority was entering a period of "rapid change" in pupil numbers, with "large reductions" between now and 2016.

The council's proposed future capital programme includes £25 million for overhauling secondary school provision.

The figure is an estimate based on the cost of redeveloping the William Brookes School site at Much Wenlock but is intended to reflect the cost of building a new school to "allow the reorganisation of two or more existing schools".

Funding for such a project might be available through the Government's Building Schools for the Future initiative but the council could be forced to borrow the money.

Also included in the programme is £25 million to build a new Shropshire university facility in partnership with Staffordshire University and further education providers. This is listed as a "landmark" scheme which means it will only happen if the council can obtain external funding.

A report by Mrs Rowley does not give figures for what the drop in secondary pupil numbers might be.

However figures obtained by the Shropshire Star in July 2008 revealed that county secondary schools had more than 1,500 surplus classroom places. This is sure to increase because there are currently more than 3,000 surplus places within the primary sector.

Education officials have previously denied any of the 22 secondary schools are under threat, saying the overall surplus places number is still below the 10 per cent figure allowed by the local government watchdog.

Secondary heads in the county have warned privately that the number of surplus places in their sector is not sustainable.

By Education Correspondent Dave Morris