MOUNTJOY supporters feel betrayed by the news the county council is ordering yet another look at rebuilding Bridport's special school.

Dorset County Councillors voted at their cabinet meeting today to undertake another review of the school's future amid spiralling costs for the rebuild now estimated at £8 to £10million and their projected decline in pupil numbers.

A decade ago the school was threatned with closure but there was such a groundswell of public support the county council agreed to rebuild it.

Now chairman of governors Ivan Kent said the latest 'review' was a gross betrayal.

"I am shocked by the news - it represents a change of direction after all the commitments they made to rebuild Mountjoy.

"It would amount to a gross betrayal not only of the children but all the people in Bridport who have supported us.

"They should not have shilly shallied for so long instead of getting on with it. They have given us one excuse after another, one delay after another, one committee after another, one consultation after another, all paid for out the public purse.

"They have already spend £1/4 million on maintaining the old building. They have just been verging on the incompetent.

"From the start my personal belief and I know it is shared by others, that the officers were determined to get their own way and not rebuild and by the sound of it they have won the day.

"Falling pupil numbers is a standard excuse and they tried to close the close with that excuse ten years ago and that turned out to be nonsense, as it always is. It is a public relations excuse based on no sound evidence. There is always going to be a need and Wyvern School in Weymouth is full.

"Another review will just be throwing good money after bad. If they had got on with this ten years ago we would have had a school up and running by now."

Ward member and district councillor Karl Wallace made a plea at the meeting to get on with the rebuild and showed figures from the past ten years showing pupil numbers have only fluctuated between 37 and 41.

"It is such a wet excuse to try and close it on predicted pupil numbers," he said. "They should make a decision and stick with it."

Mountjoy head Pam Stewart said: "I am enormously disappointed that there are further delays especially when elected members and the local authority have given the go ahead for the school to be rebuilt at least three times in the six years I have been here.

"This has all been called into question again and the staff, parents and governors are frustrated at the unfairness that we are condemned to work in a building unfit for purpose for another three years, when we were promised of a rebuild ready for occupation in 08/09."

Dorset County Council's cabinet member for children's services Toni Coombs said: "In light of news from the Environment Agency that the Mountjoy site is classified as being at moderate risk of flooding, and given that the building costs are rising and are now at an estimated £8-10m, we need to look at our options and see if the current proposals are sustainable.

"The most important thing is that the replacement Mountjoy continues to provide high quality education in a learning environment that is fit for purpose and fit for the pupils needs."

Further consultations on the future of the special school are scheduled for the autumn.