A SURPRISE deal to save a North-East school will not prevent further investment in the town's schools, education bosses have said.

Despite there being a projected shortfall of more than 1,500 pupils four years from now, Darlington Borough Council has said it remains committed to keeping all the town's schools open.

Yesterday, The Northern Echo revealed how the Prime Minister and former health secretary Alan Milburn helped negotiate a compromise to save Hurworth School.

Darlington Borough Council planned to merge Hurworth with under-performing Eastbourne School in a £25m academy.

The move attracted criticism from residents, parents and teachers at Hurworth, which was rated as one of the best performing schools in the country.

One reason for the proposed merger was that a projected shortfall of pupils would leave more than 1,500 empty places in the town's schools by 2010 under current capacity.

The deal brokered by Mr Blair and Mr Milburn will see Hurworth retained and the construction of an academy for Eastbourne pupils.

The news cast doubts over the future of Branksome and Longfield schools, which are the only two of the town's other schools which have not attracted significant investment.

However, Margaret Asquith, the director of children's services, said: "There's a future for the schools.

"What we're saying previously wass there were going to be six highly promising secondary schools. Now there's a change in provision, which means we'll have seven. The plan will remain the same to invest in these two schools."

Councillor Chris McEwan, the cabinet member for children's services, said: "I would like to say to the parents at Branksome and Longfield our plans to invest in them remain."

However, they said it was too early to say how the council would deal with the surplus places expected in future.

Keith Cotgrave, the headteacher at Longfield, said: "Longfield has always been secure. We're putting together a targeted capital bid for funding towards the upgrading of the building."

Barrie Armstrong, the council's Conservative spokesman for education, said he was pleased Hurworth had been saved, but said it was a shame it had taken so long for the decision to be made.

However, he questioned how the council was to deal with the surplus places.

Councillor Armstrong said: "It was settled that there would be six schools and we're now set for seven, so there will be financial implications that need to be re-collected.

"We will need to see the figures. I think we really need to see the Plan B now."

Hurworth Liberal Democrat councillor Martin Swainston also welcomed the news.

He said: "This is a victory for local democracy. It's taken nine months - it's ridiculous that it's taken as long as it has for common sense to prevail."