THE shake-up of secondary schools in the west of York will end up in a two-tier education system.

That is the fear of father-of-three Chris Wellburn, whose children have all gone to Lowfield School. He said he was angry and worried the proposals to combine Oaklands and Lowfield in a new school would create "one bad school for Acomb".

Meanwhile, he said Manor School, as a selective church school with no set catchment area, would prosper.

"These proposals will not make the current situation any better, they'll just maintain the status quo," said Mr Wellburn. "I have friends who started to go to church so they could get their kids in to Manor.

"I don't have an axe to grind. I don't know if Manor is a good or a bad school but my worry is that combining Oaklands and Lowfield will produce one bad school for Acomb."

Mr Wellburn, of Mattison Way, whose 14-year-old son goes to Lowfield, said the other worry is the effect all the upheaval would have on children at the school.

But City of York Council's education chief Carol Runciman, said the proposal had been driven by a decline in pupil numbers - Oaklands has 885 and Lowfield has 520 - and a need to radically improve the condition of the existing buildings.

The Evening Press reported that parents will get the chance to have their say on plans to replace two secondary schools with one in west York.

Members of the council's executive will be asked to approve plans for a new community secondary school at their meeting on Tuesday, February 7, and a proposal to build a new £17.5 million Manor School further along Boroughbridge Road.

Under the scheme, a new, 1,050 place school would be created on the Oakland's site, replacing both the existing Oaklands and Lowfield Schools.

Councillors will be asked to agree to the publication of statutory notices which will provide an outline of the proposals.

If no objections are received from the public within six weeks, the council will be able to take the final decision regarding the new school and, if objections are received, the decision will be taken by the Schools' Organisation Committee, which is independent of the council.

Parents, teachers, governors and the local community were consulted on three possible options for the schools in October, 2003.

Under the proposals, the Government would contribute £8 million towards the total £10 million total cost of modernising and extending the buildings on the Oakland's site, with the council putting forward the remaining £2 million.

Updated: 09:39 Monday, January 30, 2006