TWO multi-million pound academies could open within two years, it has emerged.

The proposed £25m academies for Consett and Stanley, in County Durham, could open in 2011, a full meeting of Durham County Council heard on Wednesday.

A planned academy for Durham City is expected to follow in 2012, councillors were told.

The council’s Labour leader Simon Henig said he had received a letter from Vernon Coaker, the Minister of State for Schools and Learners, wishing the authority luck with the "ambitious" programme.

The £75m scheme could see six secondary schools closed and replaced by three new-build academies co-sponsored by the council and an outside educational body.

Education chiefs say the academies will bring in millions of pounds of extra investment and transform school standards.

But the scheme has attracted strong opposition from some residents, parents and teachers.

The Consett Green Spaces Group has applied for the playing fields earmarked for the Consett academy to be registered as a village green and other attempts to block the project are known to be ongoing.

At Wednesday's meeting, the opposition Liberal Democrat group launched an unsuccessful attempt to have the issue referred to a scrutiny committee.