A PIONEERING £63m project to rebuild seven Bromsgrove schools is due to take a major step forward next week.

Worcestershire County Council's cabinet should decide tomorrow which consortium has been selected to take on the massive project of demolishing and creating new schools at North Bromsgrove High, South Bromsgrove High, Parkside Middle, Meadows First, Sidemoor First, Alvechurch Middle and Crown Meadow First schools.

Currently around 200 children are taught in mobile classrooms at North Bromsgrove High alone because there are not sufficient spaces. Over the past ten years demand for places in Bromsgrove has increased by more than 18 per cent.

The old school buildings are now inadequate, some are in poor states of repair and sites too small. The new schools will be built to meet future demands of the rapidly expanding town.

Detailed planning applications for the state of the art designs will be submitted to Bromsgrove District Council in May and contracts signed in November.

The project could start after Christmas on North and South, each costing £20m, and Sidemoor First, which will be moved to Perryfields Road and cost £5m. All three will open in 2007.

It has been revealed the new Sidemoor First School will also be built larger than is needed to cater for the projected increase in the number of pupils when nearby land in Perryfields Road is released for development in 2010.

The future of the current Parkside Middle building, which will become vacant when the school is moved to its new site near Meadows First, is also safeguarded.

The county council announced the landmark building would be retained, although a possible future use is not known.

County council private finance initiative project manager, Peter Parkes, said: "There will be four major buildings sites in the centre of Bromsgrove creating 4,100 school places.

"These buildings will not only provide higher education standards but be used by the community.

"It will change the face of Bromsgrove," he added.

Bromsgrove Schools Private Finance Initiative is a long-term contract with a private sector operator.

The county council will pay the contractor a monthly unitary charge over 30 years. At the end the assets remain the property of the council.