CAMPAIGNERS last night vowed to fight plans to close a nationally-acclaimed school and move it out of a North-East village.

The Northern Echo revealed yesterday that governors were considering shutting Hurworth School and Eastbourne Comprehensive, in Darlington.

Proposals unveiled by council bosses would see high-flying Hurworth take over struggling Eastbourne and a super-school built in a £20m project at the top of Yarm Road, in Darlington.

Funded by £20m of Government money, it would be known as Hurworth School and have the capacity for about 1,200 pupils.

But parents and community leaders in Hurworth are outraged by the idea.

The village raised £50,000, which triggered a £450,000 Government grant, to secure specialist maths and computing college status in 2003.

It has gone on to achieve record exam results and take part in several national initiatives to raise educational standards.

Last night, objectors to the school move said they felt betrayed by the latest development.

Borough councillor Peter Foster said: "It stinks when you consider they went out to the parents, who put all that work in to try to raise the £50,000.

"All sorts of things were done here, but will those people get their money back? They should do, especially as the Government is now putting in £20m."

Parish councillor Clive Bullock said he had resigned from the Labour Party, of which he had been a member for ten years, because of the move.

"I'm absolutely furious. This is educational vandalism - they're ruining the lives of the kids at the school. I'm going to do all I can to get the village whipped up about this," he said.

A parish council meeting on Tuesday night is expected to attract a huge number of people eager to launch a campaign to save the school.

Eamonn Farrar, acting headteacher of Eastbourne Comprehensive, said the specialist status would be transferred to the proposed new school.

"I know there are emotions surrounding this, but the money is not going to be taken away from Hurworth.

"The children from the village will have guaranteed places at the new Hurworth School," he said. "They are getting a better deal. It will be a brand new building with a tremendous teaching staff."

The board of governors at Hurworth is meeting on Friday to consider the proposals.

If they give their approval, the school would be built on council-owned land next to Alderman Tommy Crooks Park, subject to planning permission being secured.

The council is due to receive £20m from the Government for the project by 2011, but officials are lobbying for early release of the money.

Hurworth and Eastbourne joined forces in 2003 in the country's first education federation.

The link-up was designed to help lift Eastbourne out of the special measures imposed on it by Ofsted inspectors in 2002.

But Mr Farrar announced earlier this year that the federation would come to an end a year early because it had been so successful.

However, only a few weeks later, Eastbourne headteacher Karen Pemberton was suspended after an audit report suggested the school was in a serious state of decline.

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