SCHOOL governors have broken off talks with the local education authority over the future of two schools in Darlington.

Yesterday, Hurworth School's governing body said there was no longer any point in continuing dialogue with the borough council.

However, Darlington Borough Council last night said it still wanted to work with the school for the town's benefit.

The two are in conflict over plans to close top-performing Hurworth and merge it with struggling Eastbourne Comprehensive in a £25m Church of England-sponsored academy.

Hurworth governors are opposed to the plans, and are pursuing plans to expand to a 900-pupil foundation school, free from local authority control.

Yesterday the row took a twist, when Sam Jameson, chairwoman of Hurworth governors, wrote to parents saying: "We are genuinely dismayed by the continued aggressive, discourteous and disingenuous nature of the council's approach to working with us on this issue.

"I have therefore been reluctantly forced to concede that it is pointless continuing any further dialogue with their officers and representatives."

Mrs Jameson said the governors would be lobbying more widely against the academy and speeding up plans to free the school from council control.

The governors are furious that the council made public talks the sides shared last Friday, believing they were confidential. But over the weekend, council bosses confirmed the meeting with governors and formally rejected Hurworth School's expansion plans.

Last night, council chief executive Ada Burns said: "There was no confidentiality agreement with the governors. The governors circulated unsubstantiated information about their proposal, and having met with the council, they could not provide any information to show that it would not be detrimental to the education of all the borough's children.

"We have a duty to ensure that the facts relating to both proposals are made public."