ALL other possible school sites must be exhausted before a new Rawdon Littlemoor Primary can be built on playing fields off the A65 New Road Side.

Leeds councillors said last week that the level of opposition towards the Education Leeds scheme, including a 500 name petition, meant all other possibilities should be explored before planning permission was given.

Despite being pressed by the council's education arm for an early decision in a bid to avoid missing the boat on the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) funding, councillors agreed that it was important to take into account the massive amount of opposition and visit the site before coming to a decision.

Some 239 people, plus 500 more who have signed a petition, have objected to the scheme on the grounds that it will bring more traffic onto the already congested A65 and mean a loss of valuable green space. Education Leeds says the present school on Harrogate Road is in desperate need of replacing and that the chosen site is the only practical one available.

The outline plan for a two storey primary school, on land between New Road Side, Micklefield Lane and Apperley Lane, was expected to be approved in principal at last week's meeting of Leeds City Council's Plans Panel (West). Instead it was agreed to look at all other suggested sites ahead of a panel site visit before its next meeting in a month's time.

Chairman, Councillor Eileen Moxon pointed out that it was important that a decision was made quickly to avoid the council missing out on the PFI money. And she doubted the value of a site visit for councillors when the subject had been 'exhausted' by a series of public meetings.

Education Leeds hopes to be able to announce the chosen PFI builder in December, submit a full planning application by March, start work a month later and have it opened by September, 2005.

Coun Moxon said it was a difficult decision and that the council was between ' a rock and a hard place.'

"There have been three community meetings and at all these meetings other sites have been suggested, all of these have been visited and they are either not large enough to accommodate a school or not available," she said.

She added that are traffic problems on the A65 but that there were no other sites available.

"I am concerned about delaying education for children and I am not convinced that a site visit would tell us anything that everyone in this room knows inside out and back to front. No one in the community has been able to give us an alternative site."

Coun Moxon added that the Rawdon school was one of two new schools being considered by the council's planning panels and criticised Education Leeds for not co-operating more with the planning department.

"Normally when we are dealing with large applications a large amount of preliminary work is done, but that has not been done with the schools."

At the meeting last Thursday, councillors were told that 239 people had written objecting to the scheme and a further 500 had signed a petition, as opposed to 30 letters of support.

Councillor Graham Latty (Con, Aireborough) requested a site visit and Aireborough MP Paul Truswell had expressed support for a replacement school but had concerns about traffic implications, pointing out the need for Home-zones.

Coun Latty stressed he was not against a replacement school, but wanted to make sure the eventual site was the best one. "A school is needed, but not to the expense of the majority of people. I want to be reassured that the panel has seen all the options and that they can't build on the school's own fields. I do not want to deprive the children of Littlemoor with a new school or their education."