SIMON Clarke, the Conservative candidate for Middlesbrough has branded its Labour-run council’s performance as a “disaster”.

He has written to Middlesbrough Borough Council questioning why Mike Robinson, the council’s former director of learning, was recently promoted to chief executive “in light of his record in charge of schools.”

The Tory challenger described the quality of education provided to pupils in Middlesbrough as “a source of major concern” with attainment at each key stage well below national average and progress slowing as pupils get older.

Last week, Mr Clark wrote to the council’s executive director of wellbeing, care and learning, Richenda Broad, with a series of questions about the Middlesbrough School Effectiveness Strategy.

This was introduced in November after schools inspectorate Ofsted issued a highly critical report about the council's performance.

In his letter Mr Clarke raised questions about a wide range of issues, including; what information will be made available to parents about how their child’s school is performing; how the council is tackling the high rate of vacancies for school governors; what action is being taken to develop bursaries to attract talented former pupils back to Middlesbrough to teach problem subjects like maths and how the council is encouraging local employers to work with schools to improve careers information.

Mr Clarke said: “Middlesbrough Council’s record on secondary education has been a disaster for young people. Just 48 per cent of pupils in Middlesbrough get to go to a secondary school that is rated good or better by Ofsted, compared to 91 per cent in Rotherham and South Tyneside, and in February inspectors warned that town hall bosses “do not appreciate how poor performance is across the authority”.

No-one at Middlesbrough Borough Council was available for comment.