The government announced on Friday $550,000 would be spent in the next year to plan for a new primary school at Leneva on Frederic Street Road to cater for 475 students.

The budget will include $2.2 million for Wangaratta District Specialist School and Appin Park Primary School and $90,000 for Winton Primary School to upgrade and modernise facilities.

Northern Victoria MP Jaclyn Symes said it was important schools had the best classrooms and facilities.

“No matter where you live in Northern Victoria, students deserve to have a great school,” she said. “Labor is getting on with rebuilding schools across our state to give hard working families the facilities they need.”

The announcement comes after Ovens Valley Tim McCurdy said he would make the Wangaratta District Specialist School a priority when lobbying for budget funding, but Friday’s announcement is unlikely to be enough.

The school has outgrown its current location and requires about $12 million for a complete rebuild, which had been promised by the Coaltion in 2014 before it was voted out of government.

“Labor is well aware of the issues facing the school regarding an ever increasing enrollment and total lack of space for expansion, and it is well past time for them to do something about it,” McCurdy said.

Meanwhile the Coalition has announced it would provide $1 million to each of Victoria’s rural councils each year under a renewed country roads and bridges program, if it wins November’s Victorian election.

Benambra MP Bill Tilley said councils would be given the choice to spend the money as required, but one possibility could much-needed work on Woolshed Road in Indigo Shire.

He said Towong Council has also been struggling to maintain 1200 kilometres of local road, regularly used by big trucks and tankers.

“They were considering turning bitumen roads back into gravel,” he said.