AN AWARD-winning East Lancashire teacher is set for a High Court showdown with council bosses after he was suspended from a special needs school.

Stuart Randall is seeking damages in excess of £150,000 from Blackburn with Darwen after he was sent home from Newfield School, in Blackburn, in March last year.

Mr Randall, who lives in Wilpshire and was ICT co-ordinator at Newfield, said that he has been suspended from his post in breach of contract.

Now, in a writ issued at London's High Court and just made publicly available, Mr Randall, of Sunnyside Avenue, is suing the council and the governing body for damages for negligence and breach of contract. Mr Randall, a Catholic, vegetarian, divorced father of three, is also seeking an injunction requiring them to end the suspension, and to stop suspending him on the terms on which he is currently suspended.

The writ claims the council and the governors have breached the implied term of mutual trust and confidence, and have failed to act compatibly with articles 8 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Blackburn with Darwen Council declined to comment to the Lancashire Evening Telegraph on the writ, as did Mr Randall.

A spokesman for the NAS/UWT teaching union, which represents Mr Randall, said he had taught at Newfield for 10 years of his 25-year career. Mr Randall was one of the speakers at a RNIB conference last November and won an award from an education organisation for his work.