A leading councillor today waded into a fight for an East Sussex town's sixth forms.

Proposals to close five Hastings sixth forms are part of a national shake-up of post-16 education.

Education providers, Sussex Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and East Sussex County Council were required to carry out an 18-month consultation on the town's provision for teenagers wanting to stay on.

The consultation was attacked today by Hastings Borough Council deputy leader Coun Jay Kramer.

Coun Kramer accused the two bodies of producing secret documents and holding discussions behind closed doors.

He said: "The county council and the Learning and Skills Council have worked up their preferred option of a tertiary college, abolishing the five school sixth forms."

East Sussex County Council denied his claims it was were pushing for a single college, solely for Hastings. A spokesman said early recommendations had begun over a possible family of four colleges, one each for Hastings, St Leonards, Battle and Bexhill, each specialising in different subjects.

A suggested title for the institute was the Hastings and Rother Collegiate.

Coun Kramer said the council could only contemplate a single college if it was a federation of existing schools.

He said: "It should be managed by the secondary schools with secondary teachers providing the tuition and the pastoral support. If the Tory county council is planning, at a stroke, to cut off the secondaries from the young people they have nurtured from 11 years old, that would be quite wrong."

He demanded proof that £25 million would be available from the Learning Skills Council to restructure post-16 education in Hastings.

Coun Kramer said: "Before any changes are made there has to be full and open consultation with parents, teachers, governors, college staff, young people and the wider community.

"There must be no more secret documents or discussions behind closed doors. We all have a stake in improving and learning in Hastings to make sure the town's regeneration succeeds.

"That means we must all be given the chance to make our views heard."

Initial views on the fate of sixth form education in the town will be discussed at the county council's cabinet meeting on September 23.

The county council said consultations were likely to take a long time and a final decision was some way off.