DECADES-OLD temporary classrooms at five south Hampshire schools are to be touched up to extend their lifetime.

The move is part of a ten-year strategy launched to tackle the problem of the county's deteriorating SCOLA buildings - which could ultimately cost up to £150 million to resolve.

But the county council has yet to secure vital cash support from the government with which to control the decline of the classrooms.

It has £500,000 in a newly-formed fighting fund.

With 440 buildings, about 40 per cent of Hampshire County Council's school accommodation is of SCOLA construction.

They seemed like the perfect solution in the 1960s and 70s when there was a population explosion.

But, as previously reported in the Daily Echo, they are now starting to fall apart while the county council desperately tries to keep all its school buildings up to scratch.

So far only ten SCOLA classrooms have been replaced.

Now buildings at Pennington Infant School, Lymington, Siskin Infant School, Gosport, Apple-more College, in Dibden, and Orchard Infant and Junior schools, Dibden Purlieu, are all to be repaired.

The deteriorated cladding will be replaced to lengthen lifespan and improve heat retention.

A pilot project is also to be set up to find out the best technical solution to the cladding problem.

The county director of property, business and regulatory services, Andrew Smith, has previously said the final SCOLA bill could be as much as £150 million.

The authority's buildings, grounds and contracts panel has been working with other counties in a bid to seek cash support from the government as a matter of urgency.

So far, this has failed.

Referring to the problem, county education officer Andrew Seber has said: "Hampshire is nationally-recognised as having well-maintained buildings - but with this disproportionately high future liability, government must not be deterred by that from channelling funds specifically to tackle the SCOLA problem."

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.