The fight to save a school site from being sold off for housing has been taken to the secretary of state for education.

Councillors from Haringey have written to Michael Gove urging him to halt Islington Council’s plans to sell off the Ashmount Primary School building in Hornsey Lane, Archway, after the pupils move to a new site in Crouch Hill next year.

They say it should be kept for vital school places, but the council has deemed the site – on the border between the two boroughs – “surplus to requirements” and earmarked it for social housing.

Cllr Rachel Allison, who represents Highgate ward in Haringey, said: “Once that site is lost it will never be gotten back, no matter how many children need a place.

“Islington says it has no need for more places and I’m willing to believe them. But it has failed to look at whether this can be used for secondary or higher education.

“And here in Haringey there is a big shortage of primary places. One borough is loath to interfere in another’s business, but this is literally five yards away.”

Islington is expected to publish a planning application for the site in the new year.

Cllr Paul Convery, Islington’s planning chief, said the closure would not lead to a loss of places. He said if more children moved to the borough, other schools have the capacity to expand.

He said: “We are moving an existing school, so it is not like we are closing the school and losing those places.”