BURNLEY'S MP has vowed to keep the pressure on Tony Blair to rethink the decision to block the town's immediate plans for a revolution in local education.

Peter Pike made the plea in the wake of Wednesday's decision by the Department of Education and Skills not to award Burnley and Pendle around £150 million for new schools.

The Labour backbencher took up the decision with School's Minister Stephen Twigg in the Commons yesterday.

Mr Pike said he was "extremely disappointed" in the decision not to include Burnley in the 14 authorities sharing £2.2billion to rebuild and refurbish their secondary schools starting next year.

He told Mr Twigg that being on the "reserve" list of two was not good enough.

Mr Pike said: "The bid put in by Burnley was vital. Getting an amber light rather than the green light for the scheme is not good enough for the schoolchildren of Burnley. The head of Ivy Bank High School in the area told me that teachers, parents and pupils were devastated by the decision."

Mr Twigg told Mr Pike that thousands of schools had been refurbished under Labour and the fact that Burnley had only got the amber light did not mean it would not get the go-ahead soon.

He said that there was "great vision" in the Burnley proposal but almost 40 schemes out of the 52 had not been given the go-ahead.

He said that government was committed to refurbishing or rebuilding all secondary schools over the next 10 years.

Mr Pike said: "I remain very disappointed. I was disappointed by the decision on Wednesday and disappointed by Mr Twigg's response.

"I shall continue to pursue the Prime Minister, Education Secretary Charles Clarke, his Minister of State David Milliband and Mr Twigg on this issue in a bid to get a rethink."