THE Government has been accused of ‘playing with the ashes before the funeral’, after handing the classrooms of a struggling comprehensive to a new free school – before lessons have even finished.

Before Durham County Council last month confirmed Durham Gilesgate Sports College (DGSC) would close this summer, Department for Education (DfE) officials twice visited the Bradford Crescent site to see if it could accommodate the Durham Free School (DFS), due to open in September.

Within days, DFS announced it would open in DGSC’s buildings, while continuing to look for a permanent site south-east of Durham City.

Liberal Democrat councillor Dennis Southwell, DGSC’s chair of governors, said: “We haven’t even had the funeral and they’re playing around with the ashes.

“They’re using Gilesgate as a convenience and it stinks.”

Plans to replace DGSC and nearby Belmont with a new £25m academy were scrapped by the Conservative-Lib Dem Coalition in 2010.

Now DGSC is closing due to falling rolls and budget cuts.

The site, which would be worth millions if sold for housing, is owned by Durham County Council – which is opposed to the DFS because there are already enough school places in Durham City.

But under Education Secretary Michael Gove’s Academies Act 2010, the DfE can force councils to give land used for schools in the last eight years for new free schools.

Roberta Blackman-Woods, Durham City’s Labour MP, said Mr Gove was desperately pressing his flagship free schools policy, which she described as an ideological drive to bring market forces into education, and particularly in County Durham where, she said, there was strong support for local community schools.

Free schools, the MP added, made it very difficult for education authorities to plan for school numbers.

DFS headteacher Peter Cantley, however, denied Gilesgate was being treated as a stop gap, saying it had been designated as a temporary site but with the capacity to become permanent.

He said there was “strong demand” for the DFS, but the DfE would ultimately decide how long it spends in Gilesgate.

Free schools are free from local authority control – directly funded by and responsible to the Government. Earlier this week, the National Union of Teachers (NUT) said one in five were opening where there were already too many unfilled school places.