ANXIOUS parents and teachers from the east of Southampton gathered to hear the future for the city's special educational needs children at a meeting last night.

Council education bosses are proposing to close Netley Court and Ridgeway House Schools in favour of extra places at other, more modern sites.

But parents are worried their children's education will suffer.

The schools care for some of the city's most severely disabled youngsters and parents warned they could not cope in more mainstream environments

The proposals are still at the consultation stage, with the council seeking to get parents' opinions. Parents are convinced the council will push through the plans regardless of their views.

One angry mum, who did not want to be named, said: "The decision has already been made and, whatever we say, it will go ahead."

The plans are based on the principle of including children with learning difficulties with more able pupils.

Parents said they had heard horror stories of children being "dumped" in special units and forgotten about.

Another warned the disabled children would be bullied at mainstream schools and would miss their peer group.

One woman told the meeting, which was held at Woodlands School, Southampton, "It is segregation not integration".

The council's director of lifelong learning and leisure Ian Sandbrook said he was taking all opinions on board.

He said: "This is not about providing for pupils on the cheap. This is an attempt to solve a problem with the special educational needs accommodation. At the moment we have children in the city being educated in sites that are far from first class. We can't sustain the position where we do nothing for very much longer."

"I can tell there's a lot of disquiet about these proposals this evening and we will take that away with us."

There is another big meeting on the plans tonight at Redbridge Community School, starting at 7.30pm.