PARENTS at a Darlington school have urged councillors to press ahead with a controversial £25m academy.

An information session, held at Eastbourne Comprehensive School last night, saw many parents come out in support of the plan.

Darlington Borough Council hopes to merge both Eastbourne and Hurworth comprehensives to form the city-style education academy.

Supporters of high-performing Hurworth school have said the merger could impact upon education standards, and they hope to retain their school by applying for foundation status.

However, the council's director of education, Margaret Asquith, said this could result in the council losing funding for the academy and capital projects at other schools in the town.

Both Eastbourne and Hurworth schools needed a considerable amount of money spending on them to bring them up to a decent standard, she said.

Many Eastbourne parents last night said the chance to potentially receive £25m of investment should not be passed up.

Veronica Copeland, the chairman of governors at Eastbourne, said she wanted the same facilities which are at the town's new education village to be available to Eastbourne children.

She said: "These are state-of-the-art facilities and I want that for these children and I want that in this community."

In response to a comment that the school was already succeeding, she added: "We're on our way upward, but we want to go further.

"The staff have spent enough time running around with buckets catching drips and want to do what they're paid to do, which is teaching pupils."

Dave Preston, the chairman of Firthmoor Community Association, said as a grandfather he had concerns about keeping Hurworth open at the expense of the academy.

"What they're offering for only a handful of our children is going to be divisive for our area," he said.

"It would deprive this area of a really important facility.

"I'm very sorry for the people of Hurworth who are going to lose their school, and have said the heart will be ripped out of the village.

"But the heart of any place is its people and not the bricks and mortar.

"From what I've seen of the people of Hurworth, that heart is very strong and I think the village will survive and blossom.

"I would urge the council to take the common sense way forward for the majority of all the people."