TEACHERS and pupils at closure-threatened St George's RC High School have slammed the council for designating the school as a site available for developers before a final decision has been made about its future.

Bosses at the Walkden school say it shows a ‘complete disregard for the wishes of the local community’.

The site, which includes the school that is owned by the diocese and playing fields, owned by the council, is listed in a Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment Report which is a study looking at the amount of land 'potentially available for new housing development in the future.'

According to the report the site to the north and west of Parsonage Drive would have room for around 85 houses.

The school has been fighting closure proposals since they were announced two years ago as part of a multi-million pound shake-up of high schools across the city.

Pupils at the school organised a protest march attended by more than 1,000 people and wrote to public figures like Prince Charles and Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Education, about their plight.

Following a public consultation on the closure plans the council changed their plans to merging the school with St Ambrose Barlow RC High School, however the school want to remain open separately and a decision is yet to be made.

Philip Harte, headteacher, said: "Salford City Council have consistently demonstrated their disingenuity by failing to respond correctly to the public consultation process and the massive demonstration which overwhelmingly demanded that St George’s stays open and develops as a separate school and continues with its increasing trend of driving educational standards higher. It is clear to me that elements within the council are still contriving to completely disregard the wishes of the local community and their children."

Councillor Derek Antrobus, lead member for planning at Salford City Council said: "Like councils up and down the country, we're required by the government to identify potential sites across the city which could be used for housing.

"No concrete decisions are made from this assessment - it is used purely to give the government an idea of Salford's capacity to deliver new homes if required.

"Nothing is planned for the site of the school and any development would be still subject to the normal planning policy guidelines."

Pete Fisher, deputy headteacher, said: "Last weekend the council held a Garden Party at the Civic Centre, and the flyers stated ‘Celebrate Local Democracy’.

"The reality is that on one hand the council go through the pretence of consultation and on the other they are selling the school site. This is a grotesque perversion of democracy."

Daniel Sampson, of pupil campaign group justkids4georges, said: "How can we trust councillors when they go behind our backs like this. It’s outrageous."

Tim Griffiths, of justkids4georges, added: "It’s completely stupid – they’ve gone behind everybody’s back and put out these proposals without even informing us."

The council say the assessment doesn't pre-empt anything in terms of the future of the school because of the ongoing BSF programme.