PARENTS have lost their battle to keep open a school for hearing-impaired children.

From September this year youngsters with hearing problems attending Beverley School, Middlesbrough, Teesside, will be integrated into mainstream schools.

They will be switched to Sunnyside Primary School and Coulby Newham Secondary School, both at Coulby Newham, Middlesbrough.

Beverley School will become a centre for autistic children whose numbers at the school are increasing, while the number of hearing-impaired children is falling.

The school could close entirely within ten years as efforts are made to integrate youngsters with autism into mainstream schools, it emerged from a meeting of the school organisation committee, yesterday.

Parents' spokeswoman Lesley Turner said last night that the children were the unhappy victims of political correctness - and a drive by Middlesbrough Borough Council, the local education authority, to save money.

She said: "This is part of political correctness, to make the council look good and to cut down on costs. I think we have done all we could do.''

John Smith, Middlesbrough council's manager for special education needs provision, said the numbers of hearing impaired children attending Beverley had dropped in ten years from 73 to 46, with no one on the waiting list for next year.

He said of the schools at Coulby Newham: "The schools have a genuine commitment for meeting all the special needs of their children. They have a clear track record of doing that.