Five schools singled out for the axe under final proposals to the shake-up of the district's education system will get extra time to plead for their futures.

And changes affecting more than 50 other schools in the revised plans will also be open to further discussion.

The chairman of Bradford Council's Education Committee, Councillor Jim Flood was announcing the move at a meeting today.

It comes as one parent with a child at Shipley CE First School - one of the closure-threatened schools - pledged to take legal action against the Council.

The school was named along with Eccleshill Upper, Woodend Middle, Delf Hill Middle, and Undercliffe First, as five new closures after the Council revealed its final proposals for changing its education system from three to two-tier last Wednesday.

The Council plans to simplify the system by creating 156 primary schools and 29 secondary schools.

In a solicitor's letter to education chiefs Nancy Healey, 23, of Bolton Woods, whose five-year-old son Corey goes to the school, accused the Council of breaching Section 1834 of the Education Act of 1993 by failing to allow parents adequate time to respond to the revised proposals.

The decision to go back for more consultation was taken at a secret meeting of the Labour Group last night. Previously the group had been deeply split by the decision. But the group is understood to have decided overwhelmingly to consult again.

Coun Jim Flood said: "We have recognised that the amendments to the proposals have taken some parents by surprise.

"We accept that and therefore I shall be announcing at the Education Committee tonight that we are launching a secondary consultation period.

"It will concern only those schools where the proposals have been amended and will concern only those amendments."

Coun Flood stressed the Council was not reopening the whole consultation proposals and denied the Council had breached any regulations.

He said the secondary consultation period would last up until July 17 and then a report would finally come back to the education committee in September before being submitted to the Department of Education.

Ms Healey said: "I was devastated when I heard that Shipley CE First School was to close - especially when I realised parents were not being given a fair chance to put their case to Bradford Council.

"Bradford Education ought to be ashamed of the way they have treated the pupils, parents and staff at the school.

"I'm delighted but this is what the Council should have done right from the outset when it announced the revised list of proposals. It's good the Council is starting to listen but it doesn't end there, we've got to continue to support the campaign and fight to keep the schools open."

But the leader of the Council's Tory Group, Councillor Margaret Eaton, said the schools shake-up was "lurching from crisis to crisis" and losing all credibility.

"I think it is absolutely outrageous. It was shocking for the schools which quite rightly thought they were safe."

And the leader of the Council's Liberal Democrat Group, Coun Jeanette Sunderland, said: "I suspect this is the result of falling out within the Labour Group. If I were a parent or teacher I would feel betrayed by the actions of the Labour Group."

But Council leader Coun Ian Greenwood said: "We felt that schools could not have been fully aware of the potential for change. We are extremely concerned to ensure that everyone has a right to get their opinions heard. We think people did not realise the impact on them.

"Clearly we want to ensure the whole of Bradford as a community goes forward with the proposals."

Hundreds of parents, pupils and teachers are expected to stage a protest outside City Hall, Bradford, for today's education committee meeting.

Liz Metcalfe, head of Undercliffe First School, said parents and staff they would be taking a resolution to City Hall today and were in meetings with ward councillors.

The school is calling for the original proposal that the school should have a significant change as a two form entry primary school to be re-adopted.

They want a new school to be built on Oxford Road.

Audrey Raistrick, secretary of Ravenscliffe and Greengates Residents Association, which is involved in a campaign to save Eccleshill Upper School from closure said she was delighted at the decision to extend the consultation.

She said their battle to keep the school would be launched at a meeting at Windhill Community Centre tomorrow night at 7pm.

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