TWO schools just a mile apart have been forced to close after their ageing boilers were condemned as unsafe.

Half term began early on Thursday for 215 youngsters at Coxhoe Primary, near Durham City, and a similar number at West Cornforth Primary were given Friday off.

Engineers carrying out routine inspections condemned both schools' gas boilers, which date from the 1970s and are no longer made.

Durham County Council has pledged that replacement boilers will be installed at the schools during next week's half-term break.

Coxhoe headteacher Ian Brennan said: "Unfortunately, our boilers are obsolete. They finished making the parts 15 years ago, and they have been patched and repaired for years.

"It is well documented that the funding for education over the past 25 or 30 years has not been sufficient, via local and central government, to meet schools' needs. It has been a problem nationwide, but hopefully things will change.''

Mr Brennan said the school, which was recently reroofed and is soon to be redecorated, is to get £20,000 from the Gover-nment's New Deal for Schools.

"We can easily spend £20,000 on a third of the building, but will we get another £20,000 next year?"

Suzanne Parnaby, whose son Daniel attends West Cornforth school, said she was worried about safety risks to youngsters and the disruption to their education.

A Durham County Council spokesman said the boilers had come to the end of their working life. "As soon as their condition was discovered we immediately shut them down. Our primary concern is the welfare of the children.

"We can't have them working in schools that aren't heated, so the schools were shut down. Replacement boilers were immediately conditioned.

"Unless parents hear anything to the contrary, it will be business as usual when the schools return on October 30.