THE public is to be consulted on plans to demolish Lowfields School and create a new school at Oaklands in York.

City of York councillors yesterday agreed a consultation process on how to deal with falling pupil numbers in the west of York.

Options include not taking action, creating a 1,350-pupil "super-school" at Oaklands, or developing Manor School with the help of church funding, to create a more even spread of pupils at the two sites. "It has to be said that the 'do nothing' option is one that could not be considered for the long-term," said director of education and leisure Patrick Scott.

"We need to decide what we are going to do with these schools so we can make more long-term decisions. At the moment there is kind of a version of planning blight as we are reluctant to invest significantly if the future of the school is not certain," he said. Councillors were given details of the three plans, one which would see Manor School have a new "priority zone" for pupils at Poppleton Ousebank, Rufforth and Carr Junior Schools.

Mr Scott said this plan would be dependent on receiving funding from an investment scheme from the Church, but this application was well under way.

He said another consideration would be how much capital the council would gain through the sale of the Lowfields site for housing.

Coun Janet Hopton said: "I am glad the council is looking at taking these risks, although numbers of schools entry appeals have dropped, a large number of them are still coming from our corner of York, and I think that the Manor School option will relieve potential problems for the future."

Updated: 11:24 Wednesday, October 22, 2003