A £145 million project to build eight new schools has been delayed because the Government has not released the cash to Bradford Council.

Construction work on the second phase of the £400m Building Schools for Future programme was due to start this month with the schools expected to open in September 2010.

But the contract between the Council and the Department for Children, Schools and Families has still not been signed off.

And the DCSF has told the Telegraph & Argus that a range of major issues remain unresolved including affordability, bank finance and what it describes as “challenging sites”. The second phase of the new schools programme involves the rebuilding of Beckfoot School, Bingley, Grange Technology College and Hanson School, both in Bradford, and Greenhead School, Keighley.

A new special school will also be built on each of the secondary school sites, with the one at Hanson equipped for pupils with hearing difficulties. Some preparatory work for the rebuilding was carried out at Beckfoot School last summer but the site has remained dormant since.

A DCSF spokesman said: “The current phase of Bradford’s BSF project is a far more complex proposition than the first phase, which saw three schools open.

“Partnerships for Schools is working closely with the local authority and its private sector partners to address a range of issues for this subsequent phase, including affordability, challenging sites and bank finance.

“On this latter point, the assembly of bank finance is progressing well, and Partnerships for Schools is working hard to ensure the people of Bradford get the best possible deal.”

Barry Grayburn, Bradford Council’s Building Schools for the Future project director, blamed the recession as one reason for the delay.

He said: “Discussions, detailed planning, specifications and proposals have taken longer than envisaged, partly due to the current financial climate, but good progress is being made and we hope work will begin in spring.”

But David Ward, the Council’s Liberal group education spokesman, said there were now “real concerns” about the future of the remainder of the BSF programme.

Councillor Ward, who is vice-chairman of governors at Carlton Bolling School – included in the third and final phase of BSF – said: “We have moved from a situation where everything is positive to a situation where everybody has concerns about the delivery of it.

“The more delays there are in phase two, the more uncertainties there are in phase three. We are really concerned the wheels are beginning to fall off.”

Councillor Ralph Berry, the Council’s Labour education spokesman and a governor at Grange Technology College, said: “We were expecting someone on site working with us now.

“We have not even had the plans settled yet.”

He criticised the Council’s “lack of clarity” about what was going on with the BSF project.

He said: “It is frustrating. We have spent a lot of time on the plans and people need to know what they need to do to get this sorted. We are millions of pounds down the road.”

Councillor Michael Kelly, the Council’s executive member for children, admitted the delays were “frustrating” but said he hoped funding problems could be sorted out quickly.

Last month the Telegraph & Argus exclusively revealed a number of construction problems were also dogging Tong, Titus Salt and Buttershaw College – the first three schools built under the BSF programme.

An investigation has been mounted after a teacher at Buttershaw needed hospital treatment after receiving an electric shock from computer equipment. And contractors have been ordered to return to Tong to fix a badly leaking roof.