Parents have given their backing to controversial plans to combine two schools ahead of a council decision on whether to continue the project.

Harrow Council wants to amalgamate West Lodge First and Middle schools but the scheme has been knocked off course by a series of complaints about how the authority went about it.

Pinner resident Lyn Cook, of Winchester Drive, collected a petition with more than 300 names in favour of amalgamation and said the school will have to combine at some stage anyway because it is council policy.

She said: “I feel extremely strongly. I have a child in first school and another due to start and I just feel it's the way forward for the school.

“Now we are at a very strong point to do it anyway.”

She said the first school is expecting to lose a quarter of its pupils when the council changes the age children move on from first school to middle school, and then on to secondary education.

She said she is concerned the move will have an impact on the first school's funding if it does not combine with the middle school.

Not all parents agree with the plans but the council claims to have the support of the majority, with a consultation returning 70 per cent in favour among people affected.

Some say they are so impressed with the work of the first school headteacher that they want her to take over the middle school as well.

Ms Cook said: “She's very well respected for the way she runs the school and she's got the most fantastic personal touch. She knows the names of all the children.”

The two schools have been locked in a bitter feud since the proposals first emerged, after the middle school headteacher resigned in April last year.

Of 52 complaints, 22 were upheld and leading councillors will have to reconsider the proposals on Monday, November 24.

They will decide whether to press ahead with the project, as they have been advised to do by chief executive Michael Lockwood, or come up with an alternative plan