Parents and teachers have vowed to continue their fight against plans to close a special school despite councillors voting to shut it.

Members of East Sussex County Council's cabinet yesterday agreed to close St Anne's Special School in Lewes. The primary section looks set to close by August 31, 2004, with the secondary department shutting by 2007.

Parents who protested before the meeting and sat in on the debate were left upset and angry.

However, the plans have to go out to public consultation before the decision is finalised in the spring.

Headteacher Gill Ingold said: "We are disappointed but we are not going to give up the fight and we will fight this as far as we need to go to keep the school open."

Parent governor Julie Champion said: "They have not taken fully into account all the material we supplied to them.

"We have a two month period after Christmas to represent all our objections to go to the school's organisation committee."

The council wants to close the school, which has 73 pupils, as part of a county-wide reorganisation of special schools because of a drop in numbers. The children will be put into mainstream schools with special needs units.

However, parents argued that such schools cannot always provide for their children's needs and fear their education will suffer.

Parent Sharon Ward, whose 11-year-old daughter Carly is a pupil, said: "I am angry. Carly is one of the more able children and she was in a mainstream school for seven years.

"In seven years she lost her confidence. She was bullied because of her special needs. I am worried for her future. They have not heard the last of it."

Christine Wilson, whose daughter Zoe, eight, is a pupil, said: "My daughter does have communication problems and speech problems. St Anne's has a speech therapist that goes to the school and this would not happen at a mainstream school."

Jacqui Downs, whose son Thomas, is at the school said: "My son is seven in January but his mental age is four-years old so how will they include my son in a mainstream school?"

During the meeting Conservative councillor Daphne Bagshawe said: "If it can be achieved, certainly inclusion in mainstream schools is the best for our children.

"We do not wish to isolate them and segregate them. They should have a happy childhood with other children.

"There will always be children who cannot be included in mainstream schools for one reason or another. We have to try to make decisions that are in the best interests of all children in East Sussex."