The Government has been accused at the High Court of "unfairly and unlawfully" scrapping school building projects, including one in a scheme in the West Midlands.

The axe fell in July when Labour's Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme was drastically curtailed after the coalition Government took power.

Every secondary school in England was due to be rebuilt or refurbished over a 15-20 year period at an estimated cost of £55 billion.

But this was among the first education schemes to be cut back by the coalition's Education Secretary Michael Gove who said the programme was beset by "massive overspends, tragic delays, botched construction projects and needless bureaucracy".

The cuts led to the cancellation of projects at more than 700 schools, provoking uproar from councils, unions and Labour politicians, who warned it was a tragedy and would have a catastrophic effect on pupils.

Six councils in England asked Mr Justice Holman at London's High Court to order the Education Secretary to reconsider individual schemes, properly taking account of their merits.

The applications for judicial review involve Sandwell Council, Luton Borough Council, Waltham Forest Council, Newham Council, Nottingham City Council, and Kent County Council.

Lawyers for the councils say the Education Secretary failed to consult properly, did not give adequate reasons before stopping projects and breached legitimate expectations that they would be funded.

The Education Secretary argues that his decisions were not made lightly and are not open to legal challenge.

His lawyers say each of the six councils seeking judicial review will in any event receive in total "well in excess of £1 billion in BSF funding" and the case was about "whether they must get even more".