WHEELS have been put in motion for the closure of five Otley primary Schools - and their amalgamation as three new ones.

Necessary changes to create four one-form entry schools is expected to cost £750,000, including £200,000 for a nursery and the remodelling of The Whartons.

But money raised from the sale of surplus sites - All Saints Junior, North Parade, and Chippendale Primary - will go back into Leeds and not be used exclusively in the town.

Parents, teachers and school governors will now be consulted on the plan aimed at cutting down the number of surplus primary places in the town.

Last week, council chiefs approved the plan to close Ashfield Infants, Chippendale Primary, All Saints Junior, All Saints Infants, and Westgate Infants. If everything goes to plan, the schools will be closed in August 2002 and three new ones opened at Ashfield Infants and Nursery School, at All Saints Infants in Lisker Drive and at Westgate Infants schools.

On Wednesday, Leeds City Council's executive board said the former Ashfield Infants and Nursery School would become a one form of entry primary with a nursery.

All Saints Infants would become a Church of England controlled school with nursery and Westgate, a community school with nursery.

Councillors also gave the go-ahead to the feasibility of providing another nursery school at The Whartons School. But they refused a request to ring fence money raised from the sell-off of surplus property to education in Otley.

Councillor Phil Coyne (Lab, Otley and Wharfedale) said his concern was to get the best possible solution for the children of the town.

He accepted that residents of the Cambridge estate might be concerned about the increase in traffic due to more people going to All Saints Infants in Lisker Drive.

Jane Shaw, of South Parade, said: "Another 100 or so cars entering and leaving the estate twice daily is going to be more than the single access road can cope with.

"Traffic congestion is already a nightmare scenario and to add to this, without the provision of another separate access road, is utter lunacy."

Executive board members were told that teachers, governors, parents and councillors accepted there was an over-provision problem in the town caused by a falling birth rate. Of the seven primary schools, five had more than a quarter of their places empty.

Although there were plans to build hundreds of new houses in the town they would not generate enough new children and had also been put in doubt because of new government guidelines surrounding green field sites.

The report said it was difficult to plan for the potential development connected to the East of Otley relief road.

"The timing and extent of this development is extremely uncertain as it is on a greenfield site. It may therefore not be developed for some time, if at all, and will have to be re-assessed in the light of changed Government planning guidance.

"Four hundred houses could generate up to 16 children per year group, necessitating about 110 places, although housing densities could be increased if and when it goes ahead. The Rumplecroft development of around 100 houses is subject to the same changes in guidance, so it delayed."

The report said officers had concluded it would be better to retain four primary schools - two on each side of the river.

Ashfield had been chosen over Chippendale because access was better and the Chippendale site would raise more money if sold.

l The plan will now go out to public consultation until the middle of May. Statutory notices will be published in May and objections closed in mid July.

The final decision will be made in mid-August, 2001 with closures a year later.