NURSERY teachers fear their schools could face closure as part of an overhaul of the early years provision.

Darlington Borough Council has carried out a Best Value review of early years education and found that nursery schools have expensive management structures for their size.

As part of a ten-year action plan to improve provision, cost and quality of pre-school education, it wants to move nursery children into units based at primary schools.

But the move has sparked anger among nursery teachers, who feel primary schools do not have the expertise to cope with nursery education. They fear it could lead to job losses and closure.

Nursery nurse Mary Harris said: "They are basically saying we're just not value for money. But our argument is: how can you put a cost on quality provision for children of that age?

"Primary schools don't have the knowledge of how children of that age learn - and how could they expect to?"

Pat Pennington, headteacher of Darlington's George Dent Nursery School, which opened in 1917 and is one of the country's oldest nursery schools, said: "They have a vision for the early years service and, sadly, it doesn't include its nursery schools and they have a document stating this."

Trevor Drury, headteacher of Hurworth Primary School, said the move would inevitably mean more red tape.

He said: "I have been the head of a nursery unit and found it worked well, but there's going to be an extra bureaucratic workload on us if they do move into schools.

"The buildings don't always lend themselves to adaptation, and primary schools have problems already with traffic and kids being picked up."

The report into early years provision, which lays out the council's vision, has already been accepted.

The authority, which has six nursery schools and nine nursery units, also wants to provide more after-school activities in conjunction with the private and independent sector.

Geoff Pennington, director of education, said they had "absolutely no plans" to close nursery schools and denied attempting to privatise pre-school education.

He said: "The overall aim is to improve the standards and extend the coverage of pre-school education."