A DAMNING crime dossier is being used as backing for a York's school's bid to close a historic footpath running through its grounds.

Recent crime figures for St Peter's School in Clifton show 26 incidents at the school from October last year to June this year.

The incidents include men injecting themselves with drugs in the grounds, stolen laptops, wallets and bikes, and gangs of youths found wandering inside the school.

Crime figures from previous years have included robbery, abuse hurled at pupils - and even one member of staff assaulted by a gang of three.

A St Peter's School spokesman said the figures had been used to support the school's application to close the footpath that runs through the heart of its grounds.

"The path represents a significant potential for criminal actions," he said.

New legislation has given the school the right to apply for the right-of-way closure, which has now been sent to the Secretary of State to decide if a public inquiry should be held.

The school's proposals have divided councillors and sparked fury among local campaigners - who want the historic path to remain open.

Earlier this year an order to close the path was abandoned, after councillors decided the school's crime figures did not justify its closure.

But after a legal slip-up by council officers meant the matter had to be debated again, a further committee meeting decided to send the matter to the Secretary of State.

As the crime figures emerged, the school today quelled fears that a second footpath running horizontally across its land could also be closed.

Murray Naylor, chairman of the school's governors, told a public meeting that the school would not make an application to close the second footpath - after fears by locals that it would.

"I am happy to give local residents the assurance that the school will not be making any application to close the public right of way that runs between our playing fields from Westminster Road towards the City," he said.

"Unlike the right of way which leads south from Bootham and cuts through the centre of our campus, the second path that runs between our playing fields, from east to west, does not constitute a comparable security risk to our staff and pupils and we have no intention of applying for a closure order on this path."

Jim Begley, of the Clifton Path Action Group, said he was pleased the school would not make a further closure application, but added that it was "irrelevant".

"(It) is an empty gesture by the school as there is no way it satisfies the criteria of the act," he said.

Updated: 09:32 Thursday, July 14, 2005