PARENTS of children attending a special unit in Eastleigh earmarked for closure are outraged after they claim to have overheard councillors "rig" a vote on its future.

Scores of mums and dads with youngsters at the unit in Toynbee School, as well as parents of children in its mainstream, addressed an education meeting yesterday to implore councillors not to recommend that it is axed.

If it is closed, they will be forced to take places in a unit at the main Lankhills School site in Winchester.

But as a large group stood outside waiting to go into the council chamber, they claim they heard Conservative county councillors on the education committee being instructed on why it should be closed by executive member for education Don Allen in a nearby office.

At the meeting all Conservative councillors on the panel voted for closure while Lib Dems and one Labour member voted for its doors to stay open. Another Labour member abstained.

Councillor Allen denied the claims, saying he was merely stating his point of view that closing the unit "was the right thing to do".

Sally Eshraghi, mother of 13-year-old Sam Eshraghi who was born with Down's syndrome, has vowed to appeal against the decision to the Secretary of State.

"There were four parents standing in the corridor waiting to go in and we clearly heard, even with the meeting room door shut, Don Allen telling other Conservatives how to vote - and he was meant to be making the final decision. The debate was actually going our way. Some of the other members were asking really searching questions of the council officers who were struggling.

"I can't express how let down I feel, this is not a democratic process at all. It was rigged, we wasted our breath."

Cllr Allen refuted the claims that he forced his fellow Conservative members to vote for closure. Because the recommendation by the officers was clearly for closure I told the meeting that I was minded to support that and to close the unit. It is the correct thing to do," said Cllr Allen.

"The reasons for the proposed changes have arisen from the severe difficulties the school faces supporting and maintaining the class ten miles away from its main site. Lankhills School is nearing the end of a £4.5m development which will offer a greater range of curriculum facilities and both social and educational opportunities which it is not possible to offer pupils at the off-site class at Toynbee School."