EDUCATION chiefs were embroiled in a fresh dispute with governors last night after formally rejecting a multi-million pound school expansion.

Darlington Borough Council confirmed it would not support governors' proposals for Hurworth School to stay in the village, increasing its capacity to 900 pupils.

Instead, the authority is adamant that Hurworth should be merged with Eastbourne Comprehensive in a Church of England-sponsored city academy.

The two parties held talks on Friday and, last night, the council announced it had officially rejected the expansion.

It said the plan was unworkable for three reasons: the cost of the development; the likelihood of traffic congestion in the village; and the impact on pupils throughout the borough.

But governors accused the council of "ramming the academy down our throats", irrespective of the opposition to the scheme.

The row is the latest to erupt in the long-running saga over the future of Hurworth School, which lies in Prime Minister Tony Blair's Sedgefield constituency.

The council wants a £25m, 1,200-pupil academy to be built at the eastern end of Yarm Road, in Darlington.

But the plans have attracted outrage in Hurworth, where a campaign group was set up to fight them.

Last night, the council said that, using Government figures, it believed an expansion of Hurworth would cost £6m.

If the Department for Education and Skills gave it the go-ahead, the local education authority would be obliged to provide the majority of the money.

A council spokeswoman said: "At the moment, the bill to keep the borough's schools in good working order is £19m.

"The council has £7m to allocate. If the council had to spend £6m on Hurworth, there would be nothing to spend on other schools for a number of years."

The council said 452 pupils were presently transported to spend £6m on Hurworth, there would be nothing to spend on other schools for a number of years."

The council said 452 pupils were presently transported to Hurworth, with only 184 of its pupils living locally.

The spokeswoman said: "An expansion to 900 could result in almost 80 per cent of the pupils needing to be transported to Hurworth every day.

"Fifteen buses will be needed to transport the children. The cost of the extra transport would be £384,750 per year, compared to the anticipated £205,800 per year needed to transport children to the new 1,200-place academy."

The authority also said an enlarged Hurworth would force the closure of Eastbourne - leaving 300 children with no school place.

But Sam Jameson, chairwoman of Hurworth governors, said the council had not indicated to them on Friday that the scheme would be turned down, and had asked them to return with more financial details.

The council said the scheme had been refused in its present format, but Mrs Jameson said: "They have asked us to come back with a figure on how much the expansion would cost.

"They are saying we need to prove we have the money, but they haven't even got the academy funding yet.

"They are basically telling us that they are going to close us. We've tried to persuade them otherwise, but I don't think they are listening to what we are saying.

"They have got their heart set on an academy and they are trying to ram it down our throats.

"Because we don't want to play ball with what they are proposing, they are trying to make out that Hurworth are the bad boys in all of this."