Construction work in schools is of 'poor quality', a senior councillor claims.

Councillor John Smithson says he has received several letters of complaint from headteachers about the work of Jarvis plc.

But the firm has won praise from the headteacher of a Cleckheaton school where it has carried out work.

Jeff Moore, headmaster at West End Middle School in South Parade, said huge improvement works done on the school by Jarvis has been "superb."

Jarvis Plc were selected to enter into a £43 million public-private partnership for the next 30 years, which involves them improving conditions and facilities at 20 schools across Kirklees.

Coun Smithson, the deputy Leader of Kirklees Council, recently wrote a letter to senior management at Jarvis criticising what he claimed was a lack of progress or change at some schools. He said he had received several complaints from headteachers.

"Everyone wants the contract to run smoothly," said Councillor Smithson. "We all have very high hopes that the end result will be a big improvement in conditions and facilities at the schools involved - but that wasn't happening in the short term. These teething problems hadn't been ironed out and headteachers were getting very frustrated."

Following Councillor Smithson's letter, a meeting of Jarvis's senior management, Councillor Smithson and council officers has been arranged for early January.

"Jarvis had been letting us down - badly," said Councillor Smithson. "I have personally visited a number of schools and seen for myself the poor quality of work and heard very disturbing stories from headteachers.

"Previous requests for improvements had gone unheard so I believed an ultimatum was needed. I want the meeting in January to be as productive as possible. I'm confident the meeting will allow us to get the message across that we expect to see real improvements - and that we'll be back on track very quickly."

A spokesman from Jarvis said: "It is true that, in the early stages of the contract, in the summer, there was some congestion and some schools did experience difficulties. Some of these issues extended into the term in a very small number of the schools.

"The Council and Jarvis have been discussing these matters with the schools involved and, together, we are working to improve the overall performance of ongoing work on site. At no time were dangerous practices adopted, nor has there been any risk to the health and safety of the children or school staff."

West End Middle School headteacher Mr Moore said: "We have had absolutely no problems with them at all and are very satisfied.

"We have regular meetings with them, the project is running to schedule, and they have even changed things to our specification.

"They installed 14 temporary buildings in the summer without a hitch and we had a meeting with them to look at the next phase. I know there have been problems with two or three schools, but to be fair I think they were teething problems. We were in the second phase of works, so perhaps they learned from any mistakes they had made."

Jarvis is due to start work on Whitcliffe Road First and Nursery School, also in Cleckheaton, in January 2003.