DORSET County Council has voted in favour of a two-tier education system in Purbeck.

A meeting of the full council yesterday voted by 28 to 11 with one abstention in favour of a primary and secondary system.

Cabinet member for education Cllr Toni Coombs told members that there was 25 per cent spare capacity in Purbeck schools, equivalent to 1,250 pupils.

She said: “Dorset is 138th out of 150 nationally for funding per pupil. If we were at the top, we might be in a different situation, but unfortunately this world dictates we must make the best use of what we are dealt with.

“We have low funding and must make the best use of it.”

The decision means four middle schools in Purbeck will close. They are Swanage, Bovington, Wareham and Sandford.

Rob Graham, the headteacher of Sandford Middle School, told the Daily Echo he was “extremely disappointed”.

He added: “Sandford Middle School is a popular and successful school which has supported children in Purbeck for 33 years. It is going to close simply in order to address a problem the solution for which has not been gone into in anything like enough detail.”

Canon Ian Woodward, chairman of the school’s governors, said children in Purbeck would bear the brunt of the decision.

He said: “The fundamental purpose of this review was to provide better education. No evidence has been provided throughout this review of how that better education will be delivered.”

Parent Clare Harwood, whose 11-year-old daughter Grace Taylor attends Swanage Middle School, condemned the decision.

She said: “I am appalled they are going ahead when they do not have the funding. The original consultation document has changed so much over the last two years. What people thought they were voting for, they won’t be getting.”