A TROUBLED school has bowed to pressure from parents and the council leader by promising to urgently install a CCTV system to protect pupils.

Council leaders and parents have welcomed the move at Burnley's Hameldon Community College, formed from Ivy Bank and Habergham High School. Within three weeks a CCTV system will be installed in the college's corridors and grounds.

It follows a call for action by 50 worried parents at a meeting this week after it was revealed that police had been called to the Burnley super school 19 times since it opened five weeks ago.

Parents claimed a number of incidents have taken place at the college, including bullying and pupils being threatened with knives.

Leader of Burnley Council, Coun Gordon Birtwistle, attended the meeting this week, but no one from the police, the county council, which is the education authority, or the school turned up.

But Coun Birtwistle put pressure on the school by taking the concerns he heard from the parents to the headteacher Gill Broome this week.

He said: "CCTV cameras have been ordered now and will be installed within the next three weeks.

"It follows pressure put on the school to take action to tackle the problems highlighted by the parents and this will be a welcome step forward in a bid to address concerns.

"I have also asked some of the parents who attended the meeting and who had concerns about the problems at the school to organise individual meetings with the head."

The school, off Byron Street, was opened as part of the £250million Building Schools for the Future programme last month.

But parents called the meeting at Ighten Leigh Social Club, Padiham Road after a troubled first five weeks at the new school.

They critised police and education chiefs for snubbing the meeting and warned there could be serious consequence, such as a pupil being seriously injured, if no action was taken.

Tamaris Ashworth, said her son, a Year 8 pupil and a friend from Year 9 were dragged into woods near the schools, forced into the river and had money stolen.

She said he has now been taken out of school, but welcomed the CCTV: "This is fantastic news.

"It shows that the school is now actually listening to parents' concerns."

Headteacher Gill Broome said the school had been thinking of installing CCTV for a while.

She added: "Many schools take advantage of the benefits of this technology and we are completely open about the fact that it is there.

"This is all about providing a secure environment for everyone during the day and deterring things like vandalism at night.

"There are cameras covering the corridors with others planned for around the school grounds."