Judy Darby, a teacher at Oldfield House School for primary children with emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD), says Richmond Council agreed its education committee's radical plans for the school on the basis of incomplete and misleading evidence.

At the key council meeting education chairman, Councillor Brian Miller, gave examples of other boroughs with EBD units to persuade councillors that the school should be replaced by two nurture units and a bridging unit at primary school.

But friends of the school subsequently checked with those boroughs and found that in each case they also had a special needs school for primary age school children.

In a letter to the Richmond Comet last week Ms Darby wrote: "Where are these boroughs with successful EBD units, who have no EBD schools and do not use the services of neighbouring boroughs?

"We have asked that question for over a year now."

She also accused the education department of inadequate consultations and choking off referrals to the school by illegally refusing out-of-borough students.

But Coun Miller insisted that he had misled no-one and he was just listing boroughs with successful EBD units.

"What I said at that meeting was true. I did not say there were not other types of education operating.

"The people who are directly affected are the parents and of course they will be shown examples of what we have in mind and that system working successfully."

He said that issues hadn't been "thrashed around" by those with little understanding but that research had been carried out by experts with international reputations.

But asked repeatedly by the Comet where this system was operating successfully, Coun Miller was unable to name a single borough.

A council spokesman said that as far as the LEA was aware, no parents have appealed to the Special Educational Needs Tribunal against a refusal to place a child at Oldfield House.

She said: "If the LEA did refuse to agree to a request from another LEA, it would still be open to that LEA to name Oldfield House in the child's statement, and Oldfield House would be legally required to admit that child. That has not happened."

But campaigners fighting moves to put a behavioural support unit on the school site and integrate children into mainstream schools say the battle is not yet over.

"What I find so amazing is all we had was the choice of units or units," said chairman of governors Marion Strudwick.

"We're now being handed the kind of research which ought to have been done two years ago so the education committee was fully informed of the sort of best practise available throughout the country."