TWO years after it first opened to pupils, the amount of public money spent on Bournemouth's first free school still remains a mystery.

Despite the fact it has been open since September 2013, the total amount of money spent on Parkfield Free School is still not in the public domain.

The Echo's latest Freedom of Information request to the Department for Education was, in the main, refused on the grounds that the capital costs of the project have not yet been finalised.

We asked how much government money in total has been spent to date on Parkfield, but instead the DfE would only give us limited information about the school's pre-opening and post-opening expenditure that revealed the school received £145,807.46 before opening and £467,500 afterwards.

However the DfE does publish lists of payments over £25,000 and these appear to show that between July and December 2013, a total of £2.14million was paid to Parkfield Education Limited, the trust that set up the school.

These are described simply as 'Free School Capital Costs' but the information is so limited and difficult to identify that there is no guarantee these are the total costs.

Land registry records also show that Parkfield paid £3million for the College of Air Traffic Control at Hurn, which was set to be its new home from this September but has now been delayed by a year following the discovery of bats.

Despite the fact this deal has been done, and the move to Hurn was due to take place in just two months, the Department for Education said: "The Department is currently in commercial negotiations to finalise the capital costs and releasing the information you requested may have a negative impact on the Department's negotiating position."

Christine Blower, General Secretary of the NUT, said they were concerned about a lack of transparency around free schools. "There should be no question that public money is always accounted for," she said.

"The free schools programme has lacked transparency from the very start. This is a far cry from the democracy which should be at the heart of public services and it is clear that the needs of private companies are of greater concern to this Government.”

Christchurch MP Chris Chope recently quizzed Minister for Schools Edward Timpson over his claim that the delay in Parkfield moving to Hurn would not result in any additional cost to the public purse.

Mr Timpson said they had "always intended" that Parkfield School would operate from temporary accommodation from September 2015 and had set aside money for this.

He said the budget allocated for temporary classrooms will now be used to pay an additional year's rent at Dorset House.