Councillor urges parish to sit down and talk

Councillor Malcolm Dunstone, who represents Hurworth on Darlington Borough Council, said it would be negative not to consider them.

Eamonn Farrar, Hurworth School's chief executive, wants his school, Hurworth Parish Council and Hurworth Primary School to join forces to improve education and community services.

The plan could involve selling Hurworth Grange Community Centre, the primary school, or both, to raise money. A combined complex could then be built, possibly on the secondary school site.

Mr Farrar made a presentation on the merits of partnership at the parish council's meeting. The parish council will discuss his ideas at a meeting on Tuesday.

Coun Dunstone said: "I believe Eamonn Farrar made a very good case for supporting the partnership proposal.

"It would appear to be in the best interests of both schools, and could benefit the community too. I think it is right for the parish council to listen further - if it finds the proposals don't comply, it could still veto them.

"People say the village can't take any more development, but I think that's rather negative. We should at least see what the proposals could be."

Mr Farrar said the community, not him, would decide how a development would look.

He said: "I was at great pains to point out that I wasn't putting forward a plan - there isn't an 'Eammon Farrar design'.

"What I'm asking is the community to enter into a partnership so we can move forward.

"If they say yes we can hold a meeting, hopefully in the new school year, to look at all the options in detail.

"All they're committing to is sitting down with other partners to talk about how they can pool resources to improve the community and education."

Coun Dunstone's colleague, Martin Swainston, said the impact of any development needed thorough examination.

"How the community feels, how the infrastructure would cope - these are the sort of things that need to be looked at, before agreeing to something carte blanche," he said.