DORSET County Council has 'betrayed' Mountjoy campaigners by ordering yet another review to determine the special school's future, it was claimed today.

Councillors voted at a cabinet meeting to undertake the review amid spiralling rebuild costs estimated at £8-£10 million and a projected decline in pupil numbers.

Chairman of governors Ivan Kent described it as a 'gross betrayal'. He said: "I am shocked. It represents a change of direction after all the commitments they made to rebuild Mountjoy.

"It would amount to a gross betrayal not only of the children but all the people in Bridport who have supported us.

"They should not have shilly-shallied for so long instead of getting on with it.

"They have given us one excuse after another, one delay after another, one committee after another, one consultation after another, all paid for out the public purse.

"They have already spend a quarter of a million pounds on maintaining the old building. They have just been verging on the incompetent.

"From the start my personal belief and I know it is shared by others, that the officers were determined to get their own way and not rebuild and by the sound of it they have won the day.

"Falling pupil numbers is a standard excuse and they tried that excuse 10 years ago and that turned out to be nonsense, as it always is.

"It is a public relations excuse based on no sound evidence. There is always going to be a need and Wyvern School in Weymouth is full. Another review will just be throwing good money after bad."

Dorset County Council's cabinet member for children's services Toni Coombs said: "In light of news from the Environment Agency that the Mountjoy site is classified as being at moderate risk of flooding and given that the building costs are rising and are now at an estimated £8-10 million, we need to look at our options and see if the current proposals are sustainable. The most important thing is that the replacement Mountjoy continues to provide high quality education in a learning environment that is fit for purpose and fit for the pupils needs."

Further consultations on the school's future are scheduled for the autumn.

Mountjoy head teacher Pam Stewart spoke of her frustration at the decision.

She said: "I am enormously disappointed that there are further delays especially when elected members and the local authority have given the go-ahead for the school to be rebuilt at least three times in the six years I have been here.

"This has all been called into question again and the staff, parents and governors are frustrated at the unfairness that we are condemned to work in a building unfit for purpose for another three years."