MORE than 20 teachers have signalled their unhappiness with the conversion of a Blackburn high school to ‘standalone’ academy status last year at an industrial tribunal.

Witton Park, in Buncer Lane, broke free from the control of Blackburn with Darwen Council last May, to become a publicly-funded independent school.

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Headteacher Dean Logan told the Lancashire Telegraph that there were ‘no issues with parents or staff’, after no-one turned up at a public consultation meeting in July 2013. But 22 teachers at Witton Park, supported by the National Union of Teachers, have lodged an employment tribunal claim over their treatment during the conversion process, which is currently ongoing in Manchester.

The claims are being made against Witton Park Academy Trust and Blackburn with Darwen Council and relate to breaches under TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings - Protection of Employment) regulations.

Employment tribunal judge Hilary Slater dismissed part of the union’s claim over proper consultation over the transfer of staff from local authority to academy employment.

But the case will still proceed on a second matter, where Blackburn Council is said, without consultation, to have introduced a condition allowing teachers who transferred out of the academy to an authority-run community school to retain ‘continuity of service’.

Peter Sigee, counsel for the NUT, said: “They had continuity of service from the local authority to the academy and the local authority was going to give them additional protection. We contend that consultation was required.”

The employment judge, after allowing an amendment to the NUT’s surviving claim, adjourned the case until May 15.

Controversy greeted the initial proposals for Witton Park to convert to academy status - shortly after it was rebuilt under the government’s Building Schools for the Future programme.

Initially it was envisaged that the academy would be run by the Tauheedul Sponsored Academies, which runs the Tauheedul Islamic Girls School. But it was later decided that the establishment could operate as a ‘standalone’ academy.

Lawyers representing the academy trust and borough council had objected to the case being delayed, arguing that they had prepared a defence based on the union’s original claim form from July 2014.

But Judge Slater said it was ‘in the interests of justice’ to allow the NUT and the 22 teachers to pursue a slightly-altered claim.

The legal team for the academy and counsel, were permitted to draft new witness statements.