MERSEY town halls will be stripped of powers to control the opening of new schools, under radical Conservative plans to run an “education revolution” from Whitehall.

A leaked document has revealed that Local Education Authorities would be barred from blocking proposals for “free schools”, to be set up by parents, charities and businesses.

Instead, building schemes would be considered in a similar way to big infrastructure projects – such as power stations and wind farms – and taken out of local hands.

The Conservative policy would also allow anyone to turn an existing building – even a disused office block, or a community hall – into a school, without the need for planning permission.

David Cameron's party has already pinpointed Liverpool and Knowsley, areas with poor GCSE results, to be first in line for the shake-up.

Labour and the Liberal Democrats immediately condemned the plan as unworkable, arguing it exposed the hollowness of the Tory commitment to “localism”.

But the Conservatives insisted it was putting power in the hands of local people, in the same way as the popular council house sell-offs of the 1980s.

A source added: "We are putting town hall bureaucrats on notice that they cannot stop parents, or other groups, setting up their own schools.

"Labour town halls may not like this proposal, but if local authorities are confident their schools are good then they should not fear this, because there will be no demand for new ones locally.

“This is actually localism in action."