A POLL should be carried out among Wyre Forest residents over the controversial shake-up of district schools, councillors will urge today - but Tory decision-makers have pledged to scupper the plan.

Labour councillors will this morning table a motion to all members of Worcestershire County Council that the poll gauge public sentiment over plans to adopt a set-up of primary and secondary schools in the district.

The proposal is likely to win majority support from the 57-member council but the final decision rests with the Tory dominated 10-member cabinet, who are set to kill the poll idea.

Cabinet and Conservative group leader, Dr George Lord, said not only will all 26 Tories oppose the bid at full council but they will throw out the plea at cabinet.

His view was slammed by one councillor as showing an "arrogant disrespect for the people of Wyre Forest".

The cabinet voted in July to scrap the first, middle and high school system but has to vote on the plans again after the issue was "called in" for debate at full council.

Five cabinet members are Tory and Dr Lord has the casting vote.

Dr Lord said: "It won't make any difference - the cabinet will just ratify what it has already decided. The cabinet feels it has done the right thing."

Dr Lord said Labour's motion was motivated by politics as the party had previously "gone along with all the consultation exercise and supported us all the way".

Warnings have been sounded, however, that the Tories would be treading on thin ice by ignoring the wishes of a council majority.

The idea was first raised by Marc Bayliss, Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for next year's expected general election.

He said: "It would be a complete farce and shambolic if they went against democracy like that. I would be outraged."

Wyre Forest Liberal Party councillor Mike Oborski said: "If the majority of the council want something and the Tories are just going to ignore it then I think that would show a real cavalier attitude and arrogant disrespect for the county council and the people of Worcestershire and Wyre Forest."

Health Concern and the Liberal Democrats are also likely to support today's motion.

If it is given the go-ahead, the poll would be paid for and carried out by Worcestershire County Council and conducted through the post, a county spokesman said. It would be treated as a consultation exercise and would not be binding, he said.

Labour's Marc Bayliss estimated the poll would cost the council £50,000 but would be worth every penny.

He said: "What matters is getting this education review right. We are only going to have one bite of this cherry. If that £50,000 can discover what people really want then my view is that is money well spent."

The cabinet member with responsibility for education, Councillor June Longmuir, said she believed the poll would cost £100,000, have no legal validity and be "nothing more than a glorified focus group".

The Conservative councillor said: "We have already had full debate and consultation, the officers have been to every single school, we have listened to everything people have said.

"For goodness sake, let's get on with the job and do it."

Special schools vote

delayed until 2005

A VOTE that could shake up the two remaining special schools in Wyre Forest has been delayed until next year.

A crunch decision that could close Blakebrook and Stourminster schools and open two new special school sites next to mainstream schools was due this month.

Members of the cabinet at Worcestershire County Council will, however, look at proposals early next year, after plans to re-organise mainstream schools in Wyre Forest were delayed.

The vote has also been held up after cabinet members last week asked officers to re-think the time-scale for the approved closure and re-opening of special schools in South Worcestershire.

Blakebrook and Stourminster, both in Kidderminster, would close. Two special primary and secondary schools, next to mainstream schools, would open under one of the options for Wyre Forest.

Officers, however, do not yet know what is happening to mainstream schools.

Plans that would see Wyre Forest adopt a set-up of primary and secondary schools were approved by the cabinet in July but have subsequently been called back for debate by every councillor. They are being discussed at a meeting due this morning. The points raised will then be put back to cabinet on November 11 for another decision.

Head of education policy development at the council, Colin Weedon, said: "It is key that the special schools review will not come forward until the mainstream proposals have been finalised."

The council is reviewing all special schools in Worcestershire in a bid to address falling rolls as more parents opt to send their children to mainstream schools.

The third special school in the district, Alexander Patterson in Wolverley, will close at the end of the spring term, despite a long-fought battle by parents to keep it open.

Headteacher at Stourminster, Ian Hardicker, said a change was overdue. "The council are listening, they are supportive and they want to get it right," he said.

Acting head at Blakebrook, Ed Francis, said: "Although it is an anxious time for the staff, at the end of the day it will be a good thing for students and facilitates the inclusion agenda."

Church leaders put status decision on hold

DIOCESAN leaders have been forced to put the decision on which of Kidderminster's three secondary schools will be given Church of England status on hold.

The postponement is partly due to Baxter College governors not inviting diocesan education director, Rev David Morphy, to present his case.

A diocesan spokesman said: "The director believes that this has resulted in them having serious misunderstandings of the character of a C of E voluntary controlled high school."

Baxter College was chosen as the church school for the town without being consulted and its governors are vehemently opposed to the plan.

Mr Morphy added: "I am particularly concerned about the misunderstanding of C of E schools by the governors of Baxter College.

"Our schools are neither divisive nor selective as some of them have claimed. Our church schools in Kidderminster have warm support of families of different faiths and serve their local communities without selecting pupils."

Baxter College headteacher David Seddon said the governors had not invited Rev Morphy because they did not wish to waste anyone's time, when they had made their opposition clear.

"The governors are delighted with the direction the school is going and see no reason to deflect from that," he added.

The Diocesan Board of Education agreed to put off a decision at its meeting last night also because of the uncertainty caused by the cabinet's review decision being "called in" for debate at today's full county council meeting, which could result in further delays and possible changes.

Wolverley and King Charles I high schools both asked to be considered for church status but King Charles, which is voluntary controlled because it has foundation trusts, has pulled out of the race due to legal problems.

Mr Morphy said as the school had been founded in St Mary's Chantry in 1637 it should probably have had C of E status all along but to have its trust deed changed now could take the Charities Commission up to two years.

"The governors decided not to make this request during the time of the Wyre Forest review as it might further complicate the situation and because they believed they were unlikely to gain the support of the LEA in making this change," he said.

Meanwhile, the diocese is continuing to negotiate with the LEA over creating a church primary school in Stourport.

The town will lose all its C of E places with the closure of Areley Kings Middle School and the diocese is hoping to persuade the LEA to agree to give church status to the new Areley Kings Primary School.

"The middle school is on church trust land and if the LEA is going to use that for a primary school there could be legal problems if it is not a church school," added Mr Morphy.