EDUCATION experts and town hall bosses are holding a series of meetings with headteachers across Blackburn and Darwen.

The meetings are part of a series of top level consultations which will shape the future of council services in the borough.

Blackburn Council has drawn up 11 green papers which outline how vital services will be run and organised when the borough becomes independent from county hall.

The documents cover key areas such as planning, highways, leisure and social services.

And the aim is to hold talks with the public, service users, officials and council staff in a bid to gain as many public views as possible on planned changes.

Bill Taylor, chairman of the education working group and his deputy Mohammed Khan, have arranged a string of meetings.

Headteachers and governors from secondary and primary schools, special schools and nurseries are expected to take part in the think tanks.

Bill Taylor said: "We thought it best to try to meet various interest groups in education at several meetings rather than at one large conference.

"There are so many people involved in education we wanted as much feed-back from them as possible."

Councillor Taylor added: "The result is eight meetings with headteachers, chairs of school governing bodies, teachers' associations and other groups which will take place before we draw up our white paper on education."

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