PLANS to scrap West Craven's traditional Wakes Weeks and introduce a standard school year across Lancashire have been put on hold.

The proposal to introduce a six-term school year across Lancashire were put out to consultation last autumn by the county council, but received a mixed response.

In Pendle there was considerable opposition to the plan, with parish and town councils in West Craven objecting to the move and Pendle Council doing the same.

The proposal aimed to bring Lancashire into line with the rest England and to bring Burnley and Pendle into line with the rest of Lancashire.

The Burnley and Pendle areas have their own pattern of school holidays, which stem from the days when they were dominated by the textile industry. The mills would close down for the same two weeks each summer, the Wakes Weeks, and schools worked their terms around the mills.

Now most of the textile mills have gone, but the Wakes Weeks tradition is still strong in areas like West Craven, where many businesses plan around that time.

The first two full weeks in July are the Wakes weeks, which means the school summer holiday starts earlier than elsewhere in the country. A benefit is that West Craven families can book cheaper summer holidays, just outside the peak season.

There was a fear that if the local holiday pattern was scrapped, some parents would take their children out of school so they could still book cheaper holidays.

But this week, County Councillor Alan Whittaker, the Cabinet Member for Education and Young People, announced his decision not to make any changes to local arrangements for the time being.

Reacting to the consultation, which attracted 2,558 responses, he said: "The views expressed by parents and school staff and governors were very mixed and have not shown a consistent preference either way.

"I personally would have been in favour of changing the holiday pattern, but in the absence of widespread support from parents and schools it would clearly not be appropriate to make any changes locally.

"I think we need to get a clearer signal nationally about such things as examination arrangements before I can make any changes.

"Of course we already have a difference in school holidays within Lancashire to accommodate the old Wakes Weeks in parts of East Lancashire.

"We asked questions about standardising the holiday period across Lancashire during this consultation. Again we saw a mixed response but, interestingly, the response in Burnley was very different to the one in Pendle!

"I have again decided not to make changes at this stage to harmonise the school terms across Lancashire, but have asked for more discussions locally in Burnley and Pendle with a view to perhaps changing the holiday patterns there in 2005/6."