TEACHING unions today said that ambitious £150m plans to transform secondary education across Burnley and Pendle could be playing into the hands of extremists.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT), which has 430 members in Burnley, said the proposals would not help to improve community cohesion, one of the main aims of the scheme.

The NASUWT, which represents 250 teachers in the Burnley area, has also raised similar concerns.

Ken Pearson, Burnley branch secretary for the NUT, also said the union was worried about the possible involvement of Private Finance Initiative cash being used to fund the plans.

The NUT is opposed to PFI, which involves private companies paying for buildings and leasing them back to the public sector, in education.

Mr Pearson, a teacher at Walshaw High School, said: "We need to try to integrate communities more and the proposed sites will not do this. One school will be mostly Asian while the others will be predominantly white.

"The idea was to balance out the mix and help community cohesion, but the plans as they stand will not do this.

"This could be playing into the hands of the extremists.

"We would also like to find out about the possible involvement of PFI money. At the moment nobody is telling us whether PFI is an issue but we as a union are opposed to PFI in education.

"The bottom line is that with PFI private companies are involved and it is their job to make a profit."

Under the plans eight Burnley and Padiham secondary schools would be bulldozed and five new state-of-the-art schools built in their place. The proposals, which it is hoped will bring an end to the admissions problems that have plagued Burnley's education system for many years, will involve building new schools at a cost of up to £17m each.

The so-called "super schools" would occupy the current sites of Barden, St Theodore's, Gawthorpe, Habergham/Ivy Bank and Towneley High Schools.

Three schools in Nelson, which take children living in both Burnley and Pendle, have also been included in the proposals. Walton, Mansfield and Edge End are earmarked to make way for two further new schools.

Alan Whittaker, Lancashire County Council's cabinet member for education, said: "We haven't determined whether there will be any PFI involvement yet. I welcome any input, which is why we are having the consultation. Any concerns that the unions or anyone has will be taken into account.

"Discussion regarding the siting of the new schools is on-going."

Consultation runs until the end of July with a decision on the bid expected in August.