AN education authority has agreed to search for private sponsors with a view to creating controversial academy schools in County Durham.

Members of the county's cabinet have today agreed to the wide-ranging review of secondary education.

Academies, introduced seven years ago by former Prime Minister Tony Blair as a means of raising standards in education, are state schools partially funded by business, charities or religious groups.

The strategy means the authority could become 'partners' with other bodies as co-sponsors of new academies.

Councillor Clive Robson, the deputy leader of the Labour-controlled council, said: "We can no longer sustain the uncertainty over the future of our schools. We need to establish them as a matter of urgency."

The policy could cost the council as much as £2m per school and will still need to find partner organisations.

The authority has agreed to advertise to find potential suitors and is expected to produce an information pack.

The council has not said how many academies it wants or which ones will be replaced.

Liberal Democrat councillors raised concerns about what they claimed was handing over the control of education.

Councillor Nigel Martin said: "Academies are a gimmick. The fact that we have to put in money to retain a level of control is bizarre.

"We have a strategy in this county of building schools for the future.

"This runs a coach and horses through it."

Last year the council's former education director, Keith Mitchell, said the Government had "blackmailed'' the council, which originally proposed no academies, into including some in the 15-year programme by threatening to refuse money for the repair of existing schools.

But the new strategy was approved at the council cabinet meeting at County Hall in Durham.