Campaigners battling to save a doomed middle school are to take their case to schools standards minister Estelle Morris.

A Keighley Education Action Group delegation has been invited to meet the minister at Bradford City Hall on Saturday when they will urge her to scrap Bradford education bosses' plans to axe Bronte middle school in Keighley.

The meeting has been arranged by Keighley Labour MP Ann Cryer at a time when the minister is in Yorkshire for an education conference.

They will be joined by delegates from Oakbank school, Keighley, and Bronte middle school who will outline their call for Bronte to be linked to Oakbank, a grant-aided school.

She will be presented with a 3,000-word document outlining KEAG objections to Bradford council's schools' shake-up plan.

Proposals to close Bronte has sparked fierce opposition from parents in the Worth Valley who claim it would leave hundreds of children having to be bussed either to North Yorkshire or Bradford schools.

KEAG campaigner, Joyce Newton, said: "On the figures released by Bradford council we estimate that there will be about 300 children without a school place. We have asked Bradford to tell us where they will go and we have not had an answer.

"We will be making this point to the minister and hopefully she will be able to get Bradford to answer the question. We hope that Estelle Morris will agree with us that Bradford's plans for Keighley will spell disaster for the town's secondary students."

She said they would also be presenting her with detailed figures showing that the sensible option was to continue to use Bronte for secondary education first linked to Oakbank and then later establishing it as an independent secondary school.

KEAG also fear that once Bradford axes Bronte, it will sell off the site which will deprive the area of community playing fields.

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