IT is the news people in the north of Swindon had been hoping for.

Today's approval of a £60m private finance initiative is a welcome boost for an education service that has been branded as failing.

It means crumbling Hreod Parkway School will be replaced. There will be a new learning campus to serve the huge Abbey Meads development. In all there will be seven new schools.

Of course, the development will take years to come to fruition, and it won't come cheap.

The council will be landed with a repayment bill of between £3-£4m a year, which will come from a capital budget that should be boosted by the sale of council land on the Front Garden.

The new schools will help address the lack of educational facilities in Swindon.

But there is clearly still a lot further to go.

Our town has grown at an incredible pace, but the number of schools has not kept up.

In winning its bid for new schools in north Swindon, the council must not lose sight of the problems being experienced by parents of children in West Swindon,.

Bradon Forest and Greendown are virtually full and the bus service for many pupils travelling to Ridgeway has been axed.

Children in Swindon deserve the right for a proper education at a school close to their home. It is a challenge Swindon Council must rise to for the sake of future generations.