Mayor may thwart City Academy

Mayor Ken Livingstone is threatening to block the creation of one of the Government's flagship City Academies, New Labour's latest bid to raise education standards in the inner cities.

He has told Southwark council he is "minded" to veto planning permission for a new 1,200-pupil school scheduled to open next year, because it would be built on open space - even though half the land, councillors admit, is a "rubbish dump".

Southwark has approved plans for the school submitted by the Corporation of London, which is offering £2 million in aid. The Mayor has just under two weeks to decide whether to exercise his power to block it as an "unacceptable loss of open space".

The corporation is warning that, if he does so, it could pull out of the deal altogether - depriving parents of their best hope of a new school.

Last year, parents in Bermondsey, the proposed site, opened a self-help school rather than place their children elsewhere in Southwark.