The battle to save a popular infant school has already galvanised a community of parents.

Now neighbours of Three Bridges First School in Crawley have joined in too after realising their gardens will be lost if the bulldozers roll in.

West Sussex County Council is keen to push the scheme forward, moving children into a new all-through school nearby - the latest fad in the constantly shifting sands of educational policy.

But parents fear squeezing children from the age of four to 11 into the same building will destroy both schools.

While the merits of keeping youngsters at one place throughout their early years are still being assessed there is no doubt it will cut costs.

If this ultimately is the driving force behind the merger plan it is something which must be strenuously resisted.

And in 88-year-old Beatrice Allen, the pen-pushers at the Town Hall may have really met their match.