MOVES are under way to find new builders for two Hampshire school projects worth well over £2.5m.

Work came to a halt on both projects after the Park Gate firm TSL Construction hit financial problems and called in the receivers.

The contracts involve a brand new £1.5m Our Lady at St Joseph Roman Catholic School at Lymington and on a £1m extension to Elvetham Heath Primary School in the Fleet area.

Our Lady at St Joseph, a voluntary aided Roman Catholic diocesan school, had been due to move from its present cramped site off Lymington High Street into new premises off Ramley Road at Pennington in September. The contract is being supervised by Hampshire County Council's architects' department and a county council spokesman said: "We are negotiating with the receivers with the aim of appointing new builders as soon as possible."

But at Lymington, Our Lady at St Joseph head teacher Irene Cradick said: "We see this as just a hiccup.

"Once things are sorted out, we hope the work will start again fairly quickly.

"We know the new school will be finished, although we don't quite know when, and we will have a lovely new school.

"Our concerns and our sympathies are with the people who were involved in working on the building and whose jobs are on the line. We are not cross and we are not upset."

The outside frame of the building is nearing completion and roughly half the roof has been put on.

Our Lady at St Joseph has more than 100 pupils aged between four and 11 and has received glowing reports from the Ofsted inspectors.

They praised its strong commitment to achieving high educational standards and its provision for pupils' cultural and multi-cultural development.

But they did highlight the need for extra space.