A vicar has made heated claims that new buildings combining two Oxford schools will be "p*** poor" - with classrooms resembling cow sheds.

The Rev Jonathan Sewell, who is chairman of governors at Bayswater Middle School, said plans to extend it before merging with Barton Village School would rob children of a proper education.

Rev Jonathan SewellOxfordshire County Council plans to spend more than £5m transforming the Bayswater Road school into a centre of excellence, with music, leisure and nursery facilities.

But Mr Sewell, Vicar of St Mary's Church, Barton, believes the scheme should be scrapped and replaced with a completely new building.

He said: "The proposed centre of excellence has become a cheap rebuild and partial refurbishment of the lowest possible standard.

"The removal of lethal asbestos from the existing classrooms and the construction of two new teaching blocks, separate from the main buildings and resembling cow sheds, will provide two years of disruption to the staff and children of one of Oxford's most needy estates."

Mr Sewell said Bayswater governors favoured combining the two schools on the Bayswater site. He said the middle school pupils were well behaved and teachers' morale was high, encouraging staff to link up with Barton Primary School, in Bernwood Road, to design a centre of excellence.

Ormerod Special School and Barton Primary School's former sites on Fettiplace Road and Bernwood Road are also being sold, but Mr Sewell was angry that the proceeds would not be going towards new school buildings in Barton. He said: "These hopes have now been dashed by the meanness of Oxfordshire County Council which is using the sell-off of three Barton school sites to fund the county schools' budget while robbing the people of Barton of the school their children deserve."

John Mitchell, spokesman for the county council education department, said building eight new classrooms and demolishing older parts of the building would cost £1.5m.

Within four years, the school would also house the county music services, a new music hall, public swimming pool and fitness rooms, and nursery care facilities.

Mr Mitchell said: "We will make around £2m from selling the other sites and most of that will be ploughed back into Bayswater in the first year. Despite what Mr Sewell says, it's going to be significantly better when the work is completed."