COMMUNITIES will have little say over who is appointed headteacher at new primary schools under controversial shake-up plans, a leading governor has said.

The way headteachers will be appointed as part of the move to a primary school set-up were an "affront to democracy", said Cedric Smith, chairman of governors at Windmill First School, in Areley Kings, Stourport.

Education chiefs have revealed that governing bodies will be set up in Kidderminster, Stourport and Bewdley to appoint heads for all the schools in each town. This would take the decision out of the hands of tight-knit communities like Areley Kings, he said.

Most first schools will become primaries under the Worcestershire County Council scheme.

Mr Smith said: "The governors chosen will not, in the main, be from the catchment area of the new school.

"Can it be right that a group of governors selected from the whole of Stourport be given the responsibility of appointing headteachers for the whole of Stourport?

"Surely it makes more sense and is fairer to the immediate locality that governors from each school are the ones to make such appointments on a local basis."

He went on: "I cannot remember, in all my 28 years as a governor, ever coming across a set of proposals from the authority which are so out of touch with the needs of local communities."

He said the plans were designed to give council officers "maximum control" over the appointments. Each "Interim Temporary Governing Body" would be set up in April and be specific to school types, such as voluntary controlled schools.

A single governing body will appoint the headteachers for the five secondary schools in Wyre Forest.

Council officers have told parents the plans were the right approach.

The process would give applicants a "fair opportunity" and no school or group of schools would have a "voting dominance" which would favour one candidate, information given to parents by the council said.

The shake-up plans will be voted on by the council's cabinet next Thursday.

The cabinet approved the shake-up plans in July but will have to vote again after the issue was "called in" for debate at full council.