TALKS are to start on the closure of two Teesside primary schools to make way for a modern education centre.

Plans are being drawn up to demolish the under-subscribed Redbrook and Roseworth primary schools in Stockton, in favour of a £4m single replacement.

Members of Stockton Borough Council's cabinet are to decide tomorrow whether to push ahead with the proposals, which come after the authority received a £3.3m Government grant to help enhance school buildings in the town.

The planned community primary school would cater for up to 420 children and have a 39-place nursery in premises on the current Roseworth site.

If the proposal goes ahead, the school will be open in 2008 or 2009, catering to all children on the Roseworth estate aged between three and 11.

The council believes the new school is the way forward for education in the area.

Pupil numbers at both schools are falling rapidly, with 25 per cent of places at Redbrook school not filled.

That means that the majority of pupils at both schools are taught in classes combining two national curriculum age groups.

With the Catholic school, St Gregory's, being built on the estate in the last year, the council believes providing a second new primary school will enhance education further.

Stockton council's cabinet member for children and young people, Councillor Alex Cunningham, said: "This new building will offer the most up-to-date facilities for education in the 21st Century, and we want to make it available to all the children in Roseworth.

"There are no longer enough children in Roseworth to fill two community schools."

He said the buildings were out-of-date and it would not be right to replace one of them and leave the other as it was.

He added: "At present, this is just a proposal. No final decision on the future of these schools can be taken without full consultation with parents, school staff and the local community.

"If the community agrees, a detailed consultation paper will be circulated and there will be meetings at the schools to make sure that all views are heard and taken into account."

* The School Organisation Committee will decide at a meeting this month whether to approve a proposed amalgamation of Rosehill Infant School and Holy Trinity Junior School in the town. If it goes ahead, a new school will open in April on the schools' current neighbouring sites.