Otley All Saints Junior School is to be put up for sale - and the city council is to get the lion's share of the proceeds.

The imminent sale makes it look almost certain that the North Parade complex will be sold off for housing and not turned into a library or other community resource.

Although the Bradford Diocese owns the site - including the North Parade school, the adjoining caretaker's cottage, two playgrounds and the annexe in Bridge Street - it stands to get less than 20 per cent of the proceeds from the sale.

A spokeswoman for the Bradford Diocese confirmed that the diocese would receive about 19 per cent of the sale proceeds and that it would go back into education.

Leeds City Council-owned Thomas Chippendale Primary, Weston Ridge, the other Otley school which closed this month as part of primary school reorganisation, is not expected to be sold until 2004 or 2005.

And in the meantime, Leeds City Council will be putting together a planning brief of what it wants to happen to the site.

Meanwhile, the council says the after school club, which currently meets in the All Saints Junior School annexe, will be moved to the Cross Green Community Centre - where a 'substantial amount' will be invested to make it suitable.

The imminent sale of the North Parade site makes it look highly unlikely that the building will ever be used, as hoped, for a library or some sort of community resource.

In only February this year, hopes were raised that the building would become a community resource after a feasibility study was commissioned looking at turning it into a library, tourist office and youth services.

Councillor Graham Kirkland (Con, Otley and Wharfedale) described the sale as a betrayal and a sell-out.

"Residents were quite rightly keen on a new library and they have been sold down the river, without any pre-decision consultation.

"Leeds City Council should hang its head in shame. Without any consultation they have thrown away, yet again, legitimate expectations of a library."

Coun Kirkland, who has written a letter to the Bishop of Bradford, Bishop David James, said he was urging the church to make a gift to the new All Saints Primary School.

"The diocese should at least make a generous gift to aid the new All Saints School, either by way of a music and or IT foundation. It would be tragic to see money being taken out without some return investment."

And town mayor, Coun Gerard Francis said it would be a great shame if such an important site was lost to housing.

"There are few places big enough in the town for a library and as Leeds has such a big interest in the site I would have thought something could have been done."

Frazer Thompson of Dacre, Son and Hartley, handling the sale, said he expected the North Parade school site to go on the market in the next few weeks.

Mr Thompson, who could not reveal what the asking price for the site would be, said he believed the former school could be put to a number of uses.

"It could have a variety of uses, subject to planning, but I suspect it will be residential."

A spokeswoman for Leeds City Council said: "The school is owned by the Bradford Diocesan Board of Education, although Leeds City Council has a significant stake in any eventual capital receipt from its sale.

"The diocesan board has indicated that it plans to sell the junior school after it has closed.

"Among the issues that were considered following the decision to close All Saints was the future of the After School Club, which currently operates from the school. Consultation has been carried out with the departments involved and it has been agreed that the club will operate from the Cross Green Community Centre.

"The council will be making a substantial investment in Cross Green Community Centre in order to carry out vital refurbishment work to enable the club to relocate, and also to provide an improved facility for the existing community activities based at the centre."

The spokeswoman added: "There are plans to sell the site of the former Thomas Chippendale Primary School now that it is no longer needed for educational purposes.

"We will be preparing a planning brief over the next few months and the sale will hopefully be complete by 2004/2005."