A TOP councillor today promised detailed talks over plans for school academies in Kirklees.

Clr Jim Dodds, Kirklees Council's Cabinet member responsible for schools, said today that there would be widespread consultation before any plans were developed to provide two state-of-the art school academies.

The academies are part of a £200m bid that the council has put to the Government under the Building Schools for the Future programme.

Clr Jim Dodds was commenting on speculation about the future of three specific schools: Fartown High, Rawthorpe High and All Saints High.

All three have been included in a report about proposals for the academy in Huddersfield.

A separate academy is planned for Batley.

But Clr Dodds said: "It is very premature, unhelpful and unsettling to be speculating about the future of specific schools.

"We are nowhere near that detailed stage, and there are no proposals.

"There will be full and thorough consultations about all aspects of the Building Schools for the Future programme.

"I fully expect a number of alternative options will emerge and these will be fully considered and evaluated before any firm proposals are put forward.

"The only thing that has been decided in principle is that if the bid is successful there will be one academy centred on Batley, and one in the Huddersfield area, each catering for between 800 and 1,500 secondary age children.

"We do not have specific sites or numbers of pupils proposed at this early stage."

The councillor added: "We want to work closely with the schools and with all political parties in the council about what the best options are for the future.

"No decisions have been taken yet and before they are, everyone will have their say.

"To get the best possible schools for the future there are bound to have to be some changes.

"But I can assure all the staff and parents at these three schools that they will be kept fully informed.

"Once we have a decision on the bid, which we expect before the end of the year, we will then be able to get everyone involved in taking forward what is an exciting and innovative programme to boost education standards across Kirklees.

"While the academy schools proposal is a key element of the bid, there is much more to the proposed programme which will benefit schools across the borough."