PARENTS in Horsforth, Yeadon and Rawdon could be forgiven for tearing their hair out after hearing the latest twist in the PFI (Private Finance Initiative) schools saga.

Residents in each of those areas should be looking forward to building work starting on new schools, better able to educate their children, this summer. That, after all, is what Leeds Plans Panel (West) has been telling them for months. There is no doubt that the schools at Rawdon Littlemoor, Yeadon Southview and St Margaret's, in Horsforth, would all benefit from replacement / radically overhauled education facilities.

But the plans put before Leeds planners last week were not what anyone was expecting. All featuring aluminium roofs and made of cheaper, modern materials, it is fair to say the proposals were greeted with surprise and dismay by the panellists. And for the residents in Rawdon who had opposed the siting of the new school, or those in Yeadon still calling for the old building to be preserved, that must have been particularly galling.

Horsforth residents, on the other hand, are looking at a distinctly non-traditional piece of building and materials going up in the middle of their Conservation Area.

Yet, barring some dramatic breakthroughs at a special meeting on Monday, March 29, which will decide the fate of each PFI scheme, these designs look set to be approved.

That is because the council is now facing a deadline of just weeks before the schemes have to begin, or the funding will be lost. Councillor Elizabeth Nash summed up her colleagues' predicament when she stated that it was like having "a gun put to their heads". But the general public, and Aireborough and Horsforth's parents in particular, have every right to point the finger back at the plans panel and demand: "who got us into this mess in the first place?"

Securing money for new schools is extremely important, but this whole sorry saga begs the question - at any price?