A COUNCIL has been accused of stifling debate on the proposed closure of a primary school.

Councillor Fred Lawton told a full meeting of Darlington Borough Council on Thursday that there had been "no agreement" over whether Rise Carr Primary School should shut.

The authority's cabinet recently voted in favour of closing the school at the end of the academic year because, it was claimed, of falling pupil numbers.

But Coun Lawton, the Liberal Democrat member for North Road, said the real reason was the council's need to ensure the new £5.5m Harrowgate Hill Primary School, a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) school, was filled.

"The cabinet stifled all debate by calling it a matter of urgency to be discussed by them only," he said. "The whole thing is being driven by cost, not education.

"It's being driven by a requirement to fill the Harrowgate Hill PFI school."

Coun Lawton said parents, pupils and teachers were still battling to save Rise Carr.

"It was an ill-considered decision to recommend the closure of Rise Carr School," he said. Alternative courses of action are available and are being ignored.

"The word agreement should not appear anywhere in connection with the closure of Rise Carr school.

"Those people who really matter wholeheartedly disagree with it."

Council leader John Williams blamed falling birth rates and class sizes for the proposed closure.

But he said the new Harrowgate Hill Primary School would provide an excellent education for pupils only yards from their current school.

He said: "I agree that it's extremely sad that we have to recommend the closure of Rise Carr school.

"It's always sad when a long-serving old school that's been serving the community for many years has to close but so be it. The decision hasn't been taken; the cabinet has made a recommendation."

Darlington's independent School Organisation Committee will make a decision on Rise Carr and on the proposed merger of Albert Hill Nursery with Gurney Pease Primary School at a meeting on April 22.