A BARRAGE of criticism has been fired at Darlington Borough Council ahead of a meeting to decide on school closures.

A ward councillor and senior teachers have weighed in with attacks on plans to close Rise Carr Primary.

Meanwhile, residents have signed a petition on proposals to shut down Albert Hill Nursery and enable Gurney Pease Primary School to take younger children.

The school organisation committee meets today to consider the plans.

The council wants to close the Rise Carr School at the end of the academic year because of falling pupil numbers and increasing costs of building maintenance.

It is forecast there will be 64 surplus places by 2007.

The council says that to ignore the situation will only store up problems for the future and is telling parents that places can be sought at other schools such as North Road Primary and the new Harrowgate Hill Primary.

Ward councillor Fred Lawton (Liberal Democrat) said closing Rise Carr would seriously affect the entire community. He claimed most councillors had been denied the chance to debate the issue.

"This very serious matter is going to the committee having been discussed and agreed by just nine - the cabinet - of the 45 members of the council," he said. "This fact alone should give the committee pause for thought."

Rise Carr headteacher Anthony Kemp has pulled the school out of "serious weakness" status and inched it up the local league tables.

He said not one councillor visited the school during the decision-making process.

Deputy head Venetia Shaw thought children would suffer from being displaced.

"Some of our pupils have difficult home lives and school is a safe environment for them," she said. "Destroying this will create huge emotional problems."

Mrs Shaw also pointed out that, as a listed building, Rise Carr could not be demolished. But she feared a boarded-up school would be a magnet for vandals and disorder.

The committee will also hear of protests about Albert Hill Nursery. A petition has been sent in, along with individual letters