Furious parents fired party poppers at councillors as the death sentence for Comart was announced last night.

The protest broke out in a committee room at Brighton Town Hall as a meeting of Brighton and Hove City Council's children, families and schools sub-committee voted to take the next step towards shutting East Brighton College of Media Arts, known as Comart.

Formal proposals to close the school will now be published and the public given six weeks to make objections and comments.

Independent body the School Organisation Committee will make the final decision.

A group of up to 20 parents and children listened as the results of a consultation into the future of Comart was presented to councillors.

They heard meetings had attracted "few" people while a survey of parents showed they were unlikely to send their children to Comart despite it being their nearest secondary school.

Other research found whatever changes were made at the school, a large proportion of local parents would still choose not to send their children there.

The LEA had also researched the feasibility of a small school continuing at the site but rejected the idea on the grounds it would not provide pupils with an acceptable education.

Tory councillor Vanessa Brown said: "We all know this is a complex problem and this decision is not one you can take lightly. I find it very sad we've got to this point but we now have to be realistic."

She said she had listened to all the arguments proposing further consultation but could see no real benefit in further delay, insisting it would merely add to the uncertainty.

But closure would have to run in parallel with expansion of other schools, she said, suggesting the way forward for educational provision in East Brighton could be through vocation-based courses.

Almost drowned out by shouts from the public gallery of "shame on you" and "some opposition you are", she added: "The Conservative group was always totally opposed to it becoming a media college and the PFI scheme was a further complication this school did not need."

The only committee member to vote against formally proposing closure by August 31, 2005, was Green councillor Richard Mallender, who said the school's recent academic progress should be encouraged.

However, when he failed to find anyone willing to back his amendment calling for further consultation, the watching parents and children decided they had heard enough.

Several approached the committee chairwoman, threw paper over committee members and let off noisy party poppers from the public gallery.

The two-minute protest was ended when the group was ushered from the room by security staff.

Education councillor Pat Hawkes said the protest had been quite "frightening".

Outside the meeting, protest leader and parent Kevin Dale said: "We didn't do this just to be destructive.

"That was a legitimate protest to show our anger that absolutely no one is listening to us.

"There is no difference between the political parties, it is totally undemocratic. The only person to support us was Richard Mallender.

"They don't want to talk to us now."