Parents in Denholme and Cullingworth have vowed to fight for a new secondary school to serve the rural villages. They say they will do everything they can to change Bradford council's current plans for the villages. Many are concerned about the current lack of secondary-school choice for their children.

More than 60 parents voiced their concerns at a public meeting in Denholme Mechan-ics Institute. To show the strength of feeling, parents from Denholme and Culling-worth made the trip to Brad-ford City Hall for the education committee's meeting on Tuesday evening.

Children in Denholme and Cullingworth currently have to travel to Beckfoot Upper School in Bingley. Parents are concerned about the lack of choice and the distance their children have to travel.

As proposals stand, Cullingworth's Parkside Midd-le School will close. The site will be occupied by a two-form-entry primary school with a capacity for more than 400 pupils, replacing Culling-worth First School. Denholme First School is to be upgraded into a primary school.

The majority of parents believe the best way forward is to convert Parkside into a secondary school.

Denholme town mayor Russell Driver believes that parents may be able to change the situation. He says: "We need to convince the council that a new upper school would be setting its own standards. And we need to convince parents further down the valley who have the choice, which we as parents don't."

The head-teacher of Park-side, Robert Quartermain, beli-eves the school would provide an excellent site for a new secondary school. He says: "The governors and myself have always felt secondary education in this area was needed."

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