Governors at one of Sussex's top secondary schools have delivered a damning end-of-year report on the company that runs its buildings.

The report on Jarvis, whose construction and maintenance divisions won the controversial £105 million private finance initiative (PFI) contract for Varndean School and three other Brighton and Hove schools last year, contains a catalogue of complaints.

Last night the company, whose engineering arm is at the centre of the police investigation into the Potters Bar rail crash, said it had gone beyond its obligations and was working hard to resolve the remaining issues.

The annual governors' report from Varndean, leaked to The Argus, criticises Jarvis for failing to deliver services, finishing building late and carrying out poor quality work.

It says problems began in September when the school was forced to remain closed for two extra days because building work scheduled for the summer holidays had not been completed.

The relationship continued to sour in the following months, reaching a flashpoint when headteacher Andy Schofield withdrew from meetings with Jarvis and the city council.

The governors condemn the company, saying it "promises the earth to an increasingly sceptical audience and fails to deliver, either on time or to an adequate standard."

The report was written by Sangeeta Mehra, a governor and chairwoman of the school's resource committee.

The businesswoman, who has two children at the school, describes improvements to the canteen as "distinctly shoddy" and says there were fears of significant environmental damage to the 1,200-pupil school during construction.

It said: "We have monthly monitoring meetings to raise all these issues but for some members of staff dealing with Jarvis and the council is not only completely overwhelming but also incredibly demoralising.

"After a series of disagreements that became increasingly bitter and personalised, the headteacher withdrew from the monthly meetings last October but the general interaction between the school, Jarvis and the council has not improved."

The governors' report praised pupils and staff at the school, which is one of 104 national leading edge schools as well as a beacon school, for carrying on as normal.

It said: "It is testimony to the professionalism of the staff and the good sense of our students that the school has been able to operate at all during this academic year."

Jarvis Facilities Management has the contract with Brighton and Hove City Council to run Varndean, Dorothy Stringer, Patcham High and East Brighton College of Media Arts for 25 years.

The governors' report hits at the heart of the Government's controversial PFI scheme to fund the building and maintenance of schools through the private sector.

It accuses the council's education chiefs of failing to support the school and of negotiating items out of the contract to keep within budget, leading to the loss of promised equipment and claims the education authority threatened to have the school's electricity supply disconnected for delaying the contract.

Equally critical was an article written by Year 9 student Tim Glebocki, which appeared in the May edition of the school's newsletter, Varndean News.

He wrote: "As an example of the ridiculous bureaucracy instituted by Jarvis, it is now necessary for any teacher wishing to have the glass from a broken window cleared away to ask reception to ring Jarvis to ask if the job may be done.

"Then Jarvis has to ask a caretaker to fix the window. That's right, no less than two phone calls to fix one window. The teachers have to do this even if a caretaker is standing next to them."

David Lepper MP said he had been in regular meetings with the school and the education authority and felt the school had a good case.

He said: "It would be a great pity if the excellent work being done at the school was jeopardised in any way by Jarvis."

A council spokesman said: "We're very disappointed the head and governors at Varndean feel the local education authority does not support the school.

"There have been problems with late delivery of buildings and schools have had to endure more than a year of operating on a building site, inevitable where there is no alternative accommodation.

"But we acknowledge there was a failure of communication with Varndean at an earlier stage. Things are not helped by the misrepresentation of certain other events during the year.

"Far from threatening the school with disconnection, the council undertook to pay the school's bills which they were refusing to pay, to avoid disconnection.

"Officers have monitored progress in detail and spent many hours at the school trying to resolve difficulties. We shall continue to support the school."

Headteacher Mr Schofield was unable to comment.