A FIRM building Bolton's first privately-financed school has gone into receivership, owing hundreds of thousands of pounds to contractors -- and leaving the project unfinished.

Receivers have been called into the offices of Glasgow-based developers Melville Dundas just weeks before the firm was due to complete the £10m Castle Hill Community Learning Resource Centre on Tonge Moor Road.

The complex was to include a new Castle Hill Primary School and a library, sports facilities, a youth club and a 268-space car park. The project was intended to make a big contribution to the regeneration of Tonge Moor.

Now the collapse of the building company could throw a question mark over private funding of Bolton Council schemes.

Angry Bolton councillors, today involved in urgent discussions with the Receive, are calling for an investigation.

News that the firm had gone into receivership was revealed only yesterday when up to 80 workmen turned up to discover the site locked up.

Security guards prevented them from entering.

Pupils and teachers at the existing Castle Hill Primary School were due to transfer to the new building on June 23.

But with plasterwork, electrical work and decoration still to be completed, the school may be forced to remain in its existing 73-year-old home on an adjoining site until September.

Bolton councillors now want to know why the Private Finance Initiative scheme was used to fund the project. Cllr Diana Brierley, head of the council's education scrutiny committee and a governor at the school, said: "This is a disastrous turn of events. Obviously there are a lot of very important questions to be answered as to how this was allowed to happen. We need to examine the whole system of using PFI money for this sort of project.

"It's a worry for staff and children and it is imperative to find a way forward as soon as possible considering they were due to move into the new premises on June 23."

Education bosses are now involved in urgent discussions with receivers Tom Burton and Colin Dempster to find the best way of completing the complex.

But council chiefs said they would not provide funding for the project.

Under PFI scheme, public buildings such as schools and hospitals are built by private firms, which are contracted to maintain them for long periods.

Under the PFI arrangement at Tonge Moor. developers Melville Dundas have funded the building of the new centre which it was then to lease back to the council. More than 25 PFI schools have been built in England since 1997 and 500 more are due to be built or refurbished over the next three years at a cost of £2.4 billion.

A spokesman for Bolton Council said: "We are currently involved in urgent discussions with the receivers and the scheme's backers, who, we are confident, will take prompt action to complete construction of the centre so that it can be brought into use with as little delay as possible."

Melville Dundas is responsible for a number of other PFI projects in Scotland which are also facing uncertainty.

Joint receiver Tom Burton said: "We are working with the company's management team to identify the most effective way of dealing with each individual contract. Early discussions are planned to ensure each contract is completed as efficiently as possible."