BASINGSTOKE council leader Brian Gurden is looking for a new site on which to rebuild Brighton Hill's Beech Down Primary School.

Cllr Gurden is backing The Gazette's campaign to save the school following Hampshire education chief Don Allen's shock decision last week not to rebuild it but to instead expand St Mark's Primary School and add an extra classroom to Chalk Ridge Primary School.

"My first choice would be for the school to be rebuilt on its present site," he told the Gazette. "But we are also putting together other viable scenarios to retain the school in the area.

"The other rebuild option before the county was on the Beggarwood Lane development. But the site there is too small really. Even a one-form entry school would have to be on two floors and there would be no room for a playground or staff car parking.

"When it was recognised that the Beggarwood Lane site that had been put forward was not viable, I did offer to go back and examine the possibility of finding a better, more suitable site for a new primary school. I am pretty confident I can deliver that."

Cllr Allen, the executive member for education, over-ruled a decision of the county's education policy review committee which had voted to rebuild the school on its present site.

Cllr Gurden said he accepted the statistical evidence of falling pupil numbers at Beech Down but felt this would be reversed with a new building and the improvements that had taken place there culminating in an outstanding Ofsted report.

But even on the county's own figures, he argued surplus primary school places in south-west Basingstoke at below 10 per cent were not unacceptably high.

"At the moment, Beech Down is part of an established community," said Cllr Gurden. "Beggarwood Lane is going to be a growing community. But it is a greater loss for an established community to have its school taken away.

"My challenge is to work on both these possibilities - replacing Beech Down and also a new primary school for Beggarwood Lane. It is not impossible in terms of numbers to have both.

"And the other thing we have to do is to come up with a financial package that the county doesn't consider is impossible."

Cllr Gurden maintains that the impetus for the county not rebuilding Beech Down, but spreading the pupils around other schools instead, was the £4.5million the county could get for the site for redevelopment plus the £2.5 million insurance on the burned-out school building - a saving of £7million.

THE GAZETTE campaign to rebuild Beech Down Primary School needs your support.

Petitions are going into shops in the Brighton Hill area for supporters to sign and our campaign has also taken to the internet.

If you go to The Gazette website at www. thisishampshire.net/hampshire/basingstoke you can read details of the campaign - and you have the chance to give your verdict on the school's future.

You can register whether you think Beech Down should be rebuilt and you can download a copy of the campaign petition. This can be circulated to local people for signatures before being returned to The Gazette.

Keep reading The Gazette and The Basingstoke Extra for the latest developments in the campaign to rebuild Beech Down Primary School.

If you are a parent with a child at Beech Down Primary School and want to let us know why you think it should be saved, call our special Beech Down campaign line on 01256 337434.

You can also send your views to: The Letters Editor, The Gazette, Gazette House, Pelton Road, Basingstoke, RG21 6YD or e-mail us on newsdesk@basingstokegazette. co.uk