Almost £2 million in taxpayers’ money has been “wasted” in preparation for the aborted third phase of the district’s secondary school rebuilding programme.

Councillor Jeanette Sunderland, leader and education spokesman for the Council’s Liberal Democrats group, revealed the sum had been spent by Bradford Council in consultancy and planning fees for the final instalment of the local authority’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.

Education Secretary Michael Gove has frozen the scheme, as well as 57 other BSF projects affecting the rebuilding or refurbishment of nearly 700 schools nationally, as reported in the Telegraph & Argus this week.

Detailing the expenditure, Coun Sunderland criticised the previous Labour government’s handling of the BSF programme.

She said: “On March 31 this year, the Council received confirmation that the phase three projects would go ahead. The letter even praised us for the quality of our submission and £337m was to be set aside with the immediate release of £70m.

“But now we know we were being lied to by the Government. There was no money and Bradford spent over £2m navigating this complicated, expensive and bureaucratic process for nothing.”

Meanwhile, Councillor Ralph Berry, the Council’s executive member for children’s services and education, said Queensbury School, which had been due a major refurbishment, had now been confirmed as the 19th phase three local school to suffer cuts.

The Department for Education has been criticised for incorrectly listing the fate of some school projects in other parts of the country. Queensbury was missed off the list altogether.

Coun Berry said: “The school has been treated in an appalling manner and they are deserving of a very significant apology. If you didn’t see your school being on that list of cuts you can understand why people would think it was safe. It’s a form of emotional cruelty.” Both councillors vowed to make the strongest case possible to the Department for Education to seek some concessions that would allow the Council to address Bradford’s booming school rolls.

Coun Sunderland said: “The Liberal Democrats will be making strong representations to the Government about the cancellation of the building programme.

“We will be basing our appeal on the Secretary of State’s promise that his first duty is to guarantee an expansion in school places to meet need for more places. Bradford has a growing population of young people.”

Coun Berry said: “At the moment we can’t do without the extra 3,8000 places that phase three would have brought over the course of the programme.”