A SENIOR council boss had expressed serious concerns about the prospect of Hurworth School gaining foundation status long before campaigners targeted it as an option for the future, it has emerged.

In a report for local Labour group figures, Darlington Borough Council's children's services director, Margaret Asquith, said there were fears about the possibility of Hurworth leaving the local authority.

The leaked report, issued in March, reveals that town hall officials were worried that the school could have applied for foundation status - making it self-governing.

In the document, Ms Asquith says there was a real possibility that Hurworth - then the borough's top-performing school - was going to make the move.

She said: "The real disadvantages to Darlington if this happens are not only that we lose a top-performing school, but that Hurworth will then be able to set their own admissions policy, which the LEA must adhere to.

"And they are likely, at the same time, to expand their numbers to a 900/1,000 capacity school, which will effectively blight both Eastbourne and Branksome, with both schools becoming non-viable and one school needing to be closed by 2010 and the other by 2012."

The council is now pursuing Government funding for a city academy, bringing Hurworth and Eastbourne schools together, to be built at the top of Yarm Road, in Darlington.

But villagers fighting the plans are pushing for Hurworth School governors to reject the academy move and opt for foundation status instead.

Such status would see the school protected by a code of practice, with governors controlling the admissions policy.

The Save Hurworth and Rural Education action group said it would be the only school of its kind in the town, with assets held in trust by the foundation.

A council spokesman said of the leaked report: "Of course we would have been concerned.

"Our plans for success are built on all of our schools working together.

"If Hurworth went for that, they wouldn't get money to improve it.

"They'd still be in that building, with classrooms too small and corridors too narrow."

Meanwhile, Liberal Democrats have warned that they fear for the future of Longfield and Branksome schools.

Darlington group spokesman Brian Fiske said a three-tier education system was developing in the town, headed by the proposed academy.

Hummersknott and Carmel schools, which are to get a combined investment of nearly £25m next year, were in the second tier, together with the Haughton education village.

Mr Fiske said: "At the bottom are Longfield and Branksome, where vague promises of support have yet to be matched with money.

"Eye-catching announcements about Government grants cannot hide the fact that the council is pursuing its own agenda, irrespective of the wishes of many parents and without coming clean about the future of the schools left stranded at the bottom of the heap."

However, the council spokesman denied that the schools could be under threat, saying they would be the main priority for fresh investment.

"The futures of Longfield and Branksome are not under threat.

"Their future is now secure, as is the future of all other secondary schools in Darlington until at least 2010/11," he said.