Schools chiefs have launched an investigation after building work at a special school over-ran, leaving parents with hefty bills for child-care.

Parents of youngsters at Haycliffe Special School are furious after being told at short notice that the Christmas holiday would last an extra week.

Because of parents' work commitments, this left them with the nightmare of arranging last-minute child-care.

They want cash compensation to cover extra fees incurred from having to find placements for their children.

Due to the children's special needs, they go to specialised centres costing parents £85 a week.

Fuming parent Carol Beardmore, whose daughter Natalie Sargent, 16, was one of those affected, said: "It has been an absolute nightmare.

"The school was closed an additional week, and parents were out of pocket for about £100 per child. The education auth-ority should be paying for that."

She said parents do not blame Haycliffe School, in Little Horton, because the decision not to allow children back followed health and safety advice.

But she added: "We feel building contractors badly let the school and the students down with their completion dates.

"Parents of children with severe learning disabilities cannot just leave their children at home, and at 11 to 17 years of age, appropriate provision is not easy to find."

Maralyn Adey's son Kristian, 17, was also prevented from going back to the Haycliffe Lane school.

"Our children are back to school now, but we still want to take issue with how much it cost," she said.

"It was a bit of a nightmare but through parents' sheer persistence the children were allowed back on Monday."

The building work in progress at Haycliffe School is not part of the massive schools re-organisation.

Work is going on to refurbish portable buildings for the 16-plus age group at Haycliffe.

At first work was promised to be complete by November.

Today Phil Green, director of education at Bradford Council, said: "This delay in completion of work is unacceptable.

"I am undertaking an investigation to identify responsibility and prevent any other disruption of pupils' education in the future."

He said the building scheme affected pupils at Haycliffe in years 12 and 13 (post-16-year-olds) and was carried out by contractors instructed by the Council's Construction, Design and Maintenance Services.

"I regret very much the inconvenience and disruption this has caused to the young people, their learning and their parents," he said.