CASH the district receives to create more school places is to be slashed by 92 per cent, it has been revealed.

Bradford Council will receive little more than £700,000 in 2017-18 compared to £9.6 million in 2016-17.

Councillor Ralph Berry, the executive member for children’s services, described the decision as a “hammer blow” at a time when schools are facing growing pupil numbers.

And he insisted the authority would challenge the Department for Education decision.

Cllr Berry said: “I’m gobsmacked. It’s a derisory, contemptible figure.

“You can’t even get a classroom for that sum.

“It does not cover the rising needs and growing pupil numbers that we have in the Bradford district.

“I just don’t get it. We are going to be challenging it, we will have to see what we can do about this.

“All of the money seems to be going into southern areas.”

But Cllr Debbie Davies, the council’s Conservative group education spokesman, said pumping cash into the district's schools was “not always the solution”.

She said: “Leadership and giving schools more control over what they do is more important.

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“We already have schools in Bradford that have got spare places in them.

“It’s easy to blame the Government for everything. I don’t believe in the victimisation of Bradford theory.

“I don’t think there is a southern bias.”

A DfE spokesman stressed that it had made a significant investment in creating extra school places in Bradford district over the past four years.

“A key part of our long-term economic plan is ensuring we can provide enough school places for the growing population,” he said.