A COUNCIL may be ready to make a U-turn over the name of a controversial new school.

Darlington Borough Council's newly-appointed education tsar, Eamonn Farrar, has said bosses would be "idiots" to impose the name Hurworth School on the proposed £20m school to be built on the outskirts of Darlington.

Mr Farrar, the acting headteacher of Eastbourne Comprehensive, said he had not spoken to a single parent at either school who was in favour of calling the new school Hurworth.

Darlington Borough Council wants to close struggling Eastbourne and also Darlington's top-performing school, Hurworth School, and replace them with a school on a site off Yarm Road, in Darlington.

The new site is very close to the present Eastbourne Comprehensive. The idea is that Hurworth would take over Eastbourne, with staff from the village school automatically transferred. But the proposals have been met with anger in Hurworth.

Villagers are furious that they may lose their school and are worried that merging it with another school will jeopardise the outstanding exam results they achieve.

Mr Farrar said parents at Eastbourne had welcomed the proposals at a recent meeting.

He said: "The majority of parents are now looking forward to this opportunity for their kids. But people are asking why the name has to be Hurworth, rather than Eastbourne.

"We have listened to that feedback and we can't find anybody who wants it to be called Hurworth. We would have to be idiots to impose it on them.

"If this is the feeling, we won't call it Hurworth, we will call it something else, but there is a lot of mileage left before that."

Governors at Hurworth have asked the council to consider expanding the school at its present site. No final decision has been taken.

Margaret Asquith, director of children's services at the council, said: "During the consultation we will be listening to and taking into account a lot of different views expressed on all different aspects of the proposals."

Hurworth is in Tony Blair's Sedgefield constituency and Hurworth parents are planning to march to Downing Street.

Mr Blair is to meet Councillor John Williams, leader of Darlington Council, next week, to discuss the plans.