A DEAF child's mother has accused Bromley Council of "stopping" her son's education.

James Myers was due to start studying for his GCSEs this term but he does not have a school to go to and so is resigned to sitting at home in Wellbrook Road, Locksbottom, while his mother battles with Bromley Council.

The council has given the family a choice of mainstream schools Thomas Tallis in Greenwich and Overton Grange in Sutton or Oak Lodge in Wandsworth, which is a deaf school.

But Heather Myers says none of these schools are appropriate for her son.

James left Darrick Wood School, Lovibonds Avenue, Orpington, in February after he was bullied by hearing children as he was the only deaf child in the year.

He is now scared of going to another mainstream school.

All lessons at Oak Lodge School are done in sign language and no-one speaks so Mrs Myers thinks sending her son there would be a waste of the money spent by the health authority to help him hear and speak properly.

It has spent about £65,000 since he was three-and-a-half when he was given a cochlea implant.

This device helps him hear more clearly with the eventual target of the 14-year-old being able to speak normally.

He was given a free place for the summer term at independent special school Ovingdean Hall in Brighton where deaf children are taught everything orally and given speech therapy.

But the council will not fund it because it does not believe it is an efficient use of resources.

This viewpoint is strongly rejected by the medical staff he sees at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Trust for treatments concerning his deafness.

In a letter to Bromley Council, the trust's principal teacher of the deaf in the paediatric cochlear implant programme, Wendy Horler, said: "Ovingdean Hall School is the most suitable placement for his needs.

"At his age, as a hearing impaired young person, his special needs are as much about cultural, emotional and social development as about academic progress.

"In order for James to regain the confidence he has lost over these past two years he needs to be educated in an environment in which he feels safe and accepted."

Mrs Myers said: "My child has muddled his way through because he does not want to make a fuss but Bromley is being obstructive in James' education.

"James wants to speak and the health authority has spent a lot of money on his cochlea implant so why are Bromley stopping him?"

Mrs Myers has written to Tony Blair and David Cameron and says she will fight the council at a tribunal if it will not pay for her son to go to Ovingdean Hall.

A Bromley Council spokesman said: "It is our duty to arrange appropriate education which takes into account a child's needs and the most efficient use of resources."