CHURCH officials are remaining tight-lipped about why the proposed merger between two York Catholic schools appears to have hit problems.

The planning application for the new building for the merged Our Lady’s and English Martyr’s RC Primary Schools has been withdrawn.

Now parents, staff and pupils face uncertainty over the future – just three days after Education Secretary Michael Gove revealed funding for the merger was secure. The new school had been expected to be open for pupils in September next year.

Diocese of Middlesbrough assistant property manager Glen Parker said of the withdrawal: “It is not permanent. I cannot go into details.”

He declined to say when the diocese would be able to give details.

City council officers and councillors had feared the merger, along with that of two other primary schools in York would be affected by the controversial axing of the Building Schools for the Future programme, as it and another merger in the city are to be partially funded by money from a linked fund.

But none of the four York schools were among those who saw their building projects scrapped under the Government spending cuts.

“I am very pleased to say we have received funding for the merger of Our Lady’s and English Martyrs’ and Clifton Without and Rawcliffe Infants and they will go ahead as planned,” said Coun Carol Runciman, the council’s education executive member.

At her decision session next week, council education officers are expected to urge her to approve the merger on educational grounds.

The planning application was to be dealt with by a separate group of councillors, and the merger must win the approval from both her and the planning councillors as well as formal approval from the Department Of Education.

The scheme, which includes building a new school on the English Martyrs’ site in Hamilton Drive and possibly selling the Our Lady’s site on Windsor Garth, off Ascot Way, Acomb, costs £5.6 million. The schools have been part of a federation under a single head since 2006.