let's speak to the green leader of brighton and hove council, phelim mac cafferty. ning us. you are at odds with government advice currently forget part of the country. how much of a concern is that for you? as a council we want oui’ that for you? as a council we want our schools to be fully open. that is the first thing i want to say, but we need to keep children, school staff and the wider community as safe as possible, and what is worrying myself and the officials here is that we have had a sharp increase in cases, we will be approaching 500 per 100,000 people in the next few days, and that is following the pattern of the places that have already been told that the premier schools should remain closed. brighton and hove is nearly 500, the london borough of westminster is 520. today i have written to gavin williamson with my grave concerns regarding primary schools opening. we have advised our primary schools to move to remote learning. for the majority of pupils from monday. and we are doing that because we want to protect school staff, children and the wider comm

and, tonight, the bbc has learned that brighton and hove council is advising primary schools in its area the council says it is now awaiting a response from the department for education, but will advise primary headteachers in the meantime to move to remote learning for all pupils except vulnerable children and those of critical workers. the national union of head teachers have begun preliminary steps in legal proceedings against the uk government, asking them to publish the scientific evidence behind the decision to allow some schools to reopen on monday. its president is ruth davies. shejoins me now. hello to you. thank you very much indeed for being with us here on bbc news. what is the purpose of this legal action. first and foremost can we make it clear that our ambition is to keep schools open. our ambition is for continuity of learning and for education. clearly children are best suited in school and that is where their well—being as well as their educational progress better but those settings need to be safe ones and so this action we have initiated against the government has not

in brighton and hove, the council has ta ken tomorrow? has taken the very sensible decision to advise schools that they should not or they should only open for key worker and vulnerable children and we fully support that decision. throughout the rest of the country, the national education union is advising its members that they should exercise their individual right under the health and safety legislation not to attend work because it is not safe if schools are operating at full levels. we have argued for a long time that there should be proper rotor systems in schools and there should be a blended learning. some people attending school and some people attending school and some people doing it through remote learning. but the government is again refusing to accept that. paul shellard, thank you very much indeed, secretary of the brighton and hove branch of the national education union, many thanks. india's opposition congress party has warned that the government's decision to approve the emergency use of a locally developed coronavirus vac

various different areas, for example, brighton and hove council advising primary schools in its area n as well. i have these mixed emotions. i wa nt well. i have these mixed emotions. i want my children in school getting an education. that is where children should be on the 4th of january an education. that is where children should be on the 4th ofjanuary in any normal world. but i am also responsible for keeping the virus under control across this country. and whilst absolutely children are safe and teachers are safe in schools, there is no evidence, there is no evidence that teachers catch coronavirus any more than any other profession. but we also know that when schools are open that does spread the disease more through the community. and so we have taken action in the areas where the spread of the disease is strongest, and where the nhs is most under pressure, to keep the primary schools closed. but obviously this isa schools closed. but obviously this is a really difficult balance that everybody feels themselves. i've had friends say to me, i feel totally conflicted because i wan