ALMOST £2 million of Council cash has been granted to a struggling Bradford secondary school to help its transformation into an academy.

Belle Vue Boys' School in Heaton was placed in special measures in July and is in the process of being turned into an academy by the Bingley based Beckfoot Academy chain.

Yesterday, the Bradford School's Forum agreed to provide a "bridging fund" for the school.

As well as the school being taken out of Council control, it will also become a mixed sex school and be demolished and re-built as part of a Government schools building initiative.

In addition to its poor academic performance, the school is also suffering from a shortfall of pupils. Out of a possible 120 pupils a year, there are only 65 pupils in year eight.

Even the largest year group, year 11, has only 100 pupils.

It means the school is getting much less Government money than it would if its classes were full.

The school's financial situation had put many potential academy sponsors off in the past.

The forum, made up of teachers, governors and council officers and responsible for much of the funding allocated to schools, had agreed in principle to help provide money that would allow the take over to go ahead as far back as September.

A decision had been delayed when the forum asked for more details about the process before committing on an exact figure.

The forum agreed to provide the one-off financial support yesterday, but members warned that providing millions of pounds to schools which were then taken over by academy trusts should not become the norm.

Gareth Dawkins, head teacher at Bradford Academy, said: "I don't want this to become a precedent of giving a dowry to an academy sponsor - to say 'we'll give you money if you make the school popular.'

"If that happens you'll get academies asking 'you gave them money, why haven't you given us one.'"

The committee had been told that the other option, to close the school, would require a new school to be built anyway, and so providing the bridging fund would be a cheaper option.

Councillor Ralph Berry, the executive member for children's services, said: "It would be far more costly and disruptive for young people to close the school. This plan has the support of the community."

Dwayne Saxton, head of Appleton Academy, said: "We need to be careful it doesn't look like we're doing this as a favour to a particular academy chain."

Nick Weller, principal of Dixons Academies, said: "If we don't provide this money, we will be asking Beckfoot to be taking money from its own students to help create this new school."

The forum agreed to provide a one-off grant to provide 80 per cent of the £2.44 million likely deficit Belle Vue faces.