Bradford's £400 million school re-building programme was set to be officially launched at City Hall today.

Last month Bradford Council signed the contract for Phase One of the Building Schools for the Future programme with consortium Integrated Bradford.

Work has now begun to construct state-of-the-art buildings for Buttershaw, Tong and Salt secondary schools, set to re-open in September, 2008.

Representatives of all three schools were set to officially launch Phase One today by cutting a sod of earth at Salt Grammar School.

A decision is also to be made imminently on the future of Usher Street Primary School.

A six-week consultation period, held after Education Bradford announced plans to close the ailing school, finished last Friday.

A decision will be made at the next meeting of the district's School Organisation Committee on March 15.