Delays to a long-awaited school rebuilding project in Co Tyrone have been criticised.

Staff at Loreto Grammar School in Omagh were angered after the Minister for Education, Catriona Ruane, rejected proposals for a new school building, despite being promised a £14.6 million new build on its current site back in 2004.

Local building contractors are not facing a totally bleak future though, as while this is one of many such proposed school NI construction projects to have been put on the 'long finger', other schools in the Omagh district received more positive news.

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Omagh Integrated Primary received the full go-ahead for their planned new build, as well as St Connor's Primary School and Arvalee School and Resource Centre in Omagh, also getting the 'green light'.

However, the Department of Education's Review of Capital Projects identified a total of eight schools - all of which were hoping for a new school build - as 'non-compliant' with the department's Sustainable Schools Policy.

Among the other schools to be rejected was Artigarvan Primary School, near Strabane, which the Minister turned down due to a downturn in pupil numbers.

These schools have now been left in limbo and will have to rework their plans to address specific issues.

(BMcC/KMcA)