NIGHT-time security patrols are being drafted in to cover "vulnerable" North-East schools which may become the target of arsonists during the fire strike.

Redcar and Cleveland Council will run overnight patrols at 26 schools and two leisure centres in the borough to keep any risk under check. The patrols are likely to involve the 41 community safety wardens who patrol the council's 22 wards.

Several schools have been targeted by vandals and arsonists in the past few months.

Fire crews from Grangetown arrived just in time to save classrooms at Ormesby Comprehensive School in Middlesbrough in September. But the fire-ravaged cabin units still left the school with a repair bill of £40,000.

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council will also collect rubbish from the schools twice a week instead of one during the strike.

A spokesman for the council said: "We are concerned and we hope that all our schools, and their staff along with parents and children will be extra vigilant."

Security patrols will also be available in Middlesbrough although these will be under the council's regular property watch scheme where members of the public can phone in if they see anything suspicious.

In North Yorkshire, the county council is advising schools to take up security patrols where necessary - but the funds will have to come out of their own school budgets.

A spokesman for the council, which has 400 schools, said: "We've issued normal guidance and because we have so many schools in small villages, we are asking the local communities to be extra vigilant."