SPRINGFIELD Primary School in Greenock will close in June next year under initial new education proposals to be discussed today.

Under the plan, put forward by the new education convener Councillor Jim Mitchell, Springfield pupils will transfer to Larkfield Primary School at the start of the following school year.

There are currently 122 pupils on the roll at Springfield and 116 at Larkfield, though Larkfield has 256 places.

If the closure goes ahead, Springfield Primary will be the first school to shut in a shake-up of education in Inverclyde - which is going ahead despite the jettisoning by the Liberal Democrats of the previous Labour council"s public private partnership scheme.

But how the new plans - which include initial proposals for new primary schools in Robert Street, Port Glasgow, and Gilmour Street, Greenock - are to be financed is not yet known.

A report to today"s education meeting said that while no further time would be spent processing PPP for education, neither would there be any consideration given to a 'not for profit trust' for education - the route followed by other councils who have rejected PPP.

It added that officials be instructed to investigate all other ways of raising funds.

And in a move to cut costs, the report recommended that the services of outside consultants for legal and financial services should be dispensed with.