THERE is little chance of a Victorian school building being saved from demolition, a public meeting has been told.

Education Leeds held the meeting at Benton Park School, Rawdon, last Wednesday to discuss the proposed amalgamation of Yeadon's South View Infants and South View Junior schools.

Issues raised included jobs, nursery places, the reduction in admission places and the demolition of the Victorian junior school building.

The amalgamation will see a new school built on the junior school site and some residents were worried Yeadon would lose an historic landmark. The junior school was built in 1882 and many people would like to see the building or its frontage saved.

Chief Executive of Education Leeds, Chris Edwards told the meeting, attended by about 35 parents, teachers and governors, that this would be 'highly unlikely' to happen.

"I think it is highly unlikely that we would be able to do a major conversion of an existing building through the Private Finance Initiative scheme," he said. "We can explore the issue of keeping the front and renovation but I have some reservations to whether it will work as well.

"The new schools are really fantastic buildings. I cannot see any reason why anyone would think having a new school is a bad idea."

Concerns were expressed about the reduction of entry places from 60 to 30 but Mr Edwards said the figures would be reviewed on a yearly basis and provisions would be put in place for it to be extended if necessary.

Chairman of Governors at South View Infants Iain Mason said: "We see it as something positive. We want to sit and talk to the PFI and get what the area wants."

The posts of head teacher and deputy head will not automatically go to the deputy and head teachers at the current schools and will have to be advertised nationally.

Teaching, catering and security posts were to be discussed with individual unions representatives and Educ-ation Leeds. Mr Edwards stressed that they were trying to make sure people kept their jobs.

Residents also called for more pre-school places to be provided. Yeadon has two nurseries attached to schools at Queensway Primary and Westfield Juniors and a pre-school, called Kiddiwinks, at South View Infants which now has an uncertain future.

There were calls for Kiddiwinks to be relocated into the Infant school when it was emptied and for larger facilities so it could accommodate more children.

The deadline for people to comment on the proposals is tomorrow.

Sally Threlfall, Executive Officer for Childcare and Early Year Develop-ment, said: "Education Leeds and the Early Years service are working with the schools and pre-school providers to ensure we can offer the best possible provision for young children in Yeadon. This is a wonderful opportunity to develop provision for the ever-changing needs of the community."