The local government watchdog has been called in to investigate a "missing" petition which campaigners claim could have changed the outcome of Bradford's schools review.

The Save Woodend Action Group collected 1,100 signatures backing its campaign to have a secondary school established on the site of the middle school of the same name in Wrose Brow Road, Shipley.

Chris Leslie, Labour MP for Shipley, said he received the petition in June 1998 and handed it to Bradford Council on the group's behalf.

But a spokesman for the Council said: "We have no record of receiving this particular petition."

Norman Free, a former Lord Mayor of Bradford and leader of the action group, has lodged a complaint with the Local Government Ombu-

dsman, Pat Thomas.

The ombudsman, who looks into instances of alleged maladministration, confirmed that the complaint would be investigated.

Mr Free said: "The people of Windhill have been badly let down, their views have not been represented. The position is that somebody at the Council has made a mess of this whole thing."

Mr Free, who lives in Leeds Road, said the Council had a moral duty to review the position at Woodend.

Transforming Woodend Middle School into a secondary school was proposed in the first stage of the schools review but was ditched in the second round.

Council chiefs instead proposed closing Eccleshill Upper and building a new secondary school for both communities at Thorn Garth, which is now to become Immanuel Community College.

Mr Free argued that the absent petition meant the opinions of Windhill and Shipley East people had not been taken into account by Education Secretary David Blunkett when he approved the two-tier education system.

He said the petition, raised in the summer of 1998, could have changed the outcome. "Decisions were taken for other schools with far less support than we had."

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