Dr Davies says every school in Northumberland is under review

More than 30 schools in an area of the north-east of England could close because of a massive surplus in pupil places.

Northumberland County Council says it has to rid itself of more than 7,000 surplus school places within four years.

Three schools in the Ashington area of the county have already been earmarked for closure.

The council says it must now look at every school in the county in an effort to deal with a massive drop in the pupil population.

The county council has set a target of cutting 4,500 empty places to fall into line with government targets by 2007.

The schools in Ashington - Linton First School, Coulson Park First School and Alexandra Middle School - are the first to be looked at.

Education chiefs say schools in Berwick are next on their review list.

Northumberland's director of education, Dr Lindsey Davies said: "We really don't know how many schools this review will amount to.

"We need to look at each individual area in depth and identify what the needs are locally."

Northumberland County Council commissioned a review of its education provision in September 2001.

It urged council bosses to take "strategic steps" to resolve the issue, which is costing the authority tens of thousands of pounds a year.

Linton First School has only 23 pupils, although it has capacity for 40.

Coulson Park First School has 190 pupils in attendance despite having spaces for 240 youngsters. It has a waiting repair bill of £250,000.

Alexandra Middle School has a pupil capacity of 266, with only 204 on roll and a repair bill of £225,000.

Dr Davies added: "The council has a duty to provide sufficient school places for every child.

"But Northumberland continues to maintain one of the highest levels of surplus places in the country, with wide differences across the county.

'Limited funds'

"We have a large number of schools relative to the total school population and in consequence the cost of operating the school network is disproportionately high."

Jim Wright, the council's executive member for children's services added: "We have a duty to every council tax paying resident and every child in Northumberland to develop a strategy to address the surplus places in our schools and the consequent drain on our limited funds.

"We must therefore address over-capacity, free-up funds and carefully target our scarce resources for the educational benefit of every pupil in the county.

"Our task begins in Ashington and we then plan to roll out the programme across the county."

The council says it intends to use £1.5m in reserve funds to stave off almost 20 teacher job losses.