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Fury over school playgrounds PPP

Parents, teaching unions and children have today reacted angrily to the announcement by the government that its controversial Public-Private Partnership scheme for school playgrounds and sports fields is to be expanded nationwide.

Under the plan, schools lease their open spaces to the private sector for a fixed period of 30 years, who in turn fund improvements to the infrastructure and equipment of the school adjacent to their developments. The private companies are free to use the land in any way they see fit, although ownership is retained by the school and local education authority.

Under trial schemes taking place away from the public gaze in Norfolk, playing fields have been put to a variety of imaginative uses. Swallowfields Primary School in Evesham leased its 3-acre field to a company called Sborgen, a consortium of Norwegian businessmen who have begun work on an open cast chalk mine. Over the course of their 30-year contract, Sborgen will quarry to a depth of 900 metres, before filling in the hole with landfill and chemical waste and handing it back in 2032. In return for leasing their fields Swallowfields School — in dire need of larger classrooms, a new roof and a reliable heating system — has already benefited from a reconditioned computer in the library, a selection of coloured biros and a swivel chair on wheels for the headteacher's office.

St John's Comprehensive, in the historic town of King's Lynn, has leased its 5-acre sports field to the Es R Good consortium (recalling Tony Blair's mantra of Education) in return for an investment package entitled "Jam Tomorrow". Details remain unclear as contracts are still being negotiated, but Es R Good want to build a jam factory and glass recycling plant on the rugby pitch.

Other ambitious developments announced today for the rest of the UK include a CenterParcs complex at Market Bosworth High School in Leicestershire, a tractor-engine factory at Luton Old Grammar School, and an international airport at Bakewell Infant School in Derbyshire.

The plans have been savaged at every turn by angry parents and teachers. A spokesman for teaching union NUSWAT described the policy as "blinkered dogma run mad", arguing that the plans have been rushed through and do not represent value for money. He also claimed that the contracts into which schools were obliged to enter were fiendishly complex, running to hundreds of pages.

Mums and Dads have been primarily concerned about the loss of open space for children to play in. One parent today angrily demanded that her son's school refund the money she spent on his football boots, as its field has been temporarily cordoned off while contracts are exchanged. Another added "Where is my daughter going to exercise? She certainly can't do it at home. There are too many yobs in our street, and she prefers to watch videos with a box of Microchips in any case".

Education secretary Estelle Morris today defended the government's policy, pointing out that most of the new developments were in some way beneficial to the communities in which they were located. She cited the example of West Gate Primary School in Norwich, where the PPP had enabled the construction of a 300-space multi-storey car park on the former nature area. This has allowed more middle-class children to be driven to the school gates in Volvo estates, thereby reducing the overcrowding that used to occur when they parked on the zebra crossing.

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