A CAMPAIGN was launched in January 1990 to persuade the Government to release money towards a £1m rebuilding project at St Edburg's C of E primary school in Bicester.

Governors and parents wanted to replace several 40-year-old pre-fabricated classrooms and also refurbish the rest of the buildings, which dated back to Victorian times.

It had been hoped that rebuilding would have begun in the 1990-91 programme.

Charles Shouler, Bicester South county councillor, said Oxfordshire County Council had heard that the Department of Education refused to contribute towards the cost.

He explained that as a Church-aided school, finance would have been split three ways.

Oxford Diocesan Board of Education was paying 15 per cent, the county council was going to put in £150,000, with the remainder from the Education Department.

Mr Shouler said: "It is extremely disappointing and frustrating that the Education Department has refused to make a grant.

"The Department does not have to give its reasons."