Protesters are urging parents to turn out in force at a city hall meeting which will investigate plans to close three secondary schools in Bradford.

St Joseph's Catholic College in Manningham, St Bede's Grammar School in Heaton and Yorkshire Martyrs Catholic College in Tong are set to be replaced with one amalgamated school by 2008. The new co-educational school, which would initially be split across the St Bede's and St Joseph's sites, would be the biggest in the district.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Leeds, which runs Catholic secondary schools throughout the area, wants amalgamation because of falling numbers of Catholic pupils. But the proposed move has upset parents in the south of the city.

Mum-of-three Sharon Ratnik, a governor at St Columba's Catholic Primary School in Dudley Hill, said: "There is a lot of anger about this.

"If this happens around 1,600 pupils will have to move schools and around 500 children will be left with no school whatsoever.

"There will also be no free travel provided for most pupils because most of them will have to travel more than three miles to school and will not qualify. It will have a devastating effect on young people and all the travelling will add another two hours to their school day."

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Leeds has held a consultation exercise about the proposed merger throughout the summer.

An emergency meeting of Bradford Council's Young People and Education Improvement Committee will meet on Thursday from 4.30pm to discuss the plans.

Committee chairman, councillor Phil Thornton (Lab, Windhill and Wrose), said he was against the closures and called on parents to make their views known. "It is vital that anyone who has a view on this comes along," he said.

e-mail: dan.webber@bradford.newsquest.co.uk