A £250 million project which included the rebuilding or refurbishment of schools across the Dover district has been scrapped.

On Monday Education Secretary Michael Gove announced the death knell of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) project, launched by the ousted Labour Government in 2003.

Outlining plans to axe 700 rebuilding or refurbishment projects nationwide, Mr Gove said: "In the light of the public finances, it would have been irresponsible to carry on regardless with an inflexible and needlessly complex programme."

The move is part of £1 billion of cuts to the Department for Education for 2010/11 pledges deemed "unrealistic."

It means 715 schools will no longer be rebuilt or refurbished through BSF.

The building programme for 153 schools has not yet been confirmed, and 123 academy projects in development which have not yet had the go-ahead will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

For the district this means all rebuilding and refurbishment schemes have now been ditched, apart from the academy bids from two schools.

Although Castle Community College may still go ahead with its bid for academy status, the planned merger with Walmer College for a new trust school for 1,320 pupils on the Castle college site, and possibly a combined sixth form or vocational-skills centre on the Walmer grounds, has now been stopped.

Proposals for the girls' and boys' schools to move into separate state-of-the-art buildings close to Archers Court Maths and Computing College have also been stopped.

Funding will now no longer be in place for refurbishment at Astor College for the Arts, new facilities at Sir Roger Manwood's school rebuilding at St Edmund's Catholic School, work at Sandwich Technology School and Portal House, or improved IT facilities at Harbour special school in Dover.

The proposed academy status of Archers Court, due to become Dover Christ Church Academy this September, with a new school building on site by 2013, is now "under discussion". The school's main sponsor is Canterbury Christ Church University.

Academy plans for the Duke Of York's, which was to see £37 million of Government investment in new boarding and teaching facilities and a rise in pupil numbers from 500 to 720, are also to be discussed.

The Government is now launching a review of all capital investment in education.