Board meets after school arson

Education authorities will have to find new facilities for the school's 400 pupils Education authorities are to meet later to discuss a plan to accommodate 400 pupils whose north Belfast school was destroyed by arsonists at the weekend. Much of Whitehouse Primary School on the Doagh Road, Newtownabbey, was destroyed in the blaze on Saturday. Only the nursery section of the school survived the early morning fire. Whitehouse Primary is the fourth school to be targeted by arsonists in the greater Belfast area in the past few days. Northern Eastern Board officers hope to be able to provide facilities for the pupils when the new school year begins in September. Gordon Topping, chief executive of the North Eastern Education and Library Board, said there were already plans for a new school on the site but now board officers would have to press the Education Department to release funding quickly to get the rebuild started.