LABOUR have hit back over accusations they wasted taxpayers' cash on a project which was "not fit for purpose".

North East councils spent millions on the planning stages alone, of the doomed Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, it was claimed.

The Conservatives said the scheme, a Labour brainchild, saw money fall into the hands of consultants, instead of being spent on education.

BSF was eventually scrapped by Education Secretary Michael Gove last year, before many projects had even got off the drawing board.

Coun Jim Allan, head of the North Tyneside Labour group revealed that Conservative-led North Tyneside Council spent £1.12m on BSF with nothing to show for it.

He said: “It wasn’t just Labour councils which were spending. Our mayor allowed millions to be spent on a project which her party knew it was going to scrap.”

Mr Allan also claimed the Conservatives have done nothing to spell out how they will find the funds for school improvements now that BSF has been axed.

He said: “We ended up with no new schools built under BSF because the scheme was stopped before our wave of building could start. That work still needs to be done.

“I have seen projections which estimate we will have to spend up to £80m on repairing and maintaining our schools in the next three years.

“Where is that money going to come from?”