Kingston Council has turned to private finance in a desperate bid to find the money for a new secondary school.

A new £35m school in north Kingston needs to be built and ready by September 2015 to meet a rising demand for places.

Funding had stalled since the Government axed the Building Schools for the Future scheme last July.

But the council hopes it will be successful in the national private finance initiative (PFI) programme.

Councillor Liz Green, deputy leader of the council, said: “I would rather not have PFI. It is just that there is no other money on the table. It is the only option.”

She wrote to Education Secretary Michael Gove on Tuesday to ask him to support the bid.

Coun Green said: “He knows all about it our need because I have spoken to him a couple of times about them.”

Under a PFI deal private contractors would pay the upfront costs of building a new school and lease it back to the council over about 30 years.

Kingston Hospital is due to pay back £66m by 2037 on the £33m spent on its new surgical centre built under PFI.

An extra £266m is to be paid for services such as catering, portering, cleaning and security over the remainder of the lease term although the hospital would have still had to pay for them.

Kingston Christian People’s Alliance spokesman Paul Pickhaver said: “Council taxpayers will avoid upfront costs but are locked into expensive long-term repayment deals.

“We need to see the exact terms of the proposed deal, but experience tells us Kingston Council’s plans could be a financial millstone for decades to come.”

The results of the PFI bid are expected to be known in December.

The council is still waiting to hear whether it will be successful in getting money out of a national £500m Government fund for school buildings.

Plans for the school to be built on the site of the North Kingston Centre in Richmond Road have met strong local opposition over fears about congestion, overcrowding and the demolition of the former Tiffin Girls’ School building.