Last Friday, Mirfield and Dewsbury MP Shahid Malik held an emergency meeting with school heads to plan the fight against Kirklees Council's Building Schools for the Future scheme and discuss alternatives.

On Monday, hundreds of concerned parents flocked to a consultation evening at Mirfield Free Grammar School to quiz council representatives about how the plans would affect their children's futures.

On Tuesday, Mirfield Town Council criticised the scheme and agreed to pay for parent group Retain Education At Castle Hall (REACH)'s next batch of campaign flyers.

On Wednesday, dozens of campaigners picketed Kirklees Council's monthly meeting in Huddersfield, 13 concerned heads and pupils condemned the plans, and 33 councillors agreed to threaten the cabinet with a vote of no confidence if it did not abandon them.

Reach leader Karen Rowling confirmed the group is to take its petition to Downing Street on October 28, following a campaign march on Saturday October 25 through Ravensthorpe and Mirfield.

And on Thursday, more people than ever turned up to Reach's weekly meeting at Ravensthorpe Community Centre to discuss their next move.

Mirfield Free Grammar headteacher Lorraine Barker said: "There is an increasing groudswell of opposition to the current proposals." She welcomed counillors' demands to scrap the plans. "This is an opportunity to create a more socially cohesive plan which has the life chances of local children at the heart of it."

First published October 17, 2008.