UNUSED places at primary schools in County Durham are to be used to provide nursery education for three-year-olds.

The number of primary pupils has fallen in many areas and some schools are operating well below capacity.

Durham County Council is one of the country's leading providers of nursery schools and currently all four-year-olds and 72 per cent of three-year-olds can get places at nurseries run by the council or other providers.

The Government wants councils to develop "integrated" nursery education and childcare as part of its drive to raise educational standards.

Now the county council plans to develop nurseries at schools that have the space to accommodate them because they are not full.

The move has been approved by the council's executive committee, which heard that in some parts of the county demand for nursery places outstrips supply.

Education Director Keith Mitchell said getting capital funding for extra nursery places could be a problem.

The council had also been refused funding by the Department for Education and Employment for schemes to reduce surplus school places.

He told the committee: "Need for capital can be low where additional nursery education provision is to be made within existing premises, in some cases with minimal alterations, and in others with costs which could be contained within the revenue income associated with the new places."