A muslim father says he is ready to finance a new court challenge to save single-sex education in Oxford.

Only hours after the Save Our Schools group decided to abandon its legal battle with Oxfordshire County Council, garage owner Monawar Hussain pledged that he would fight on, whatever the legal costs.

Mr Hussain wants to take Oxfordshire County Council to the Court of Appeal, rather than face the prospect of sending his two daughters, seven and eight, to a school with boys.

Mr Hussain, of Wilkins Road, Cowley, said: "I am prepared to try to go it alone. The bottom line is there are Muslim parents in Oxford who want to send their daughters to a single-sex school.

"I know that other parents decided to stop the legal action because of the money. But I am still faced with the same problem and am not willing to stop now. I want to take it all the way and see what happens.

"I know the legal costs could run up to £10,000 or £12,000. I am not particularly wealthy, just an average guy. But I am not just fighting here for my own daughters. I am doing this for Muslims and other parents who want to send their daughters to a single-sex school."

Oxfordshire County Council welcomed news that SOS campaigners had dropped plans to go to the Court of Appeal to try to stop the closure of Oxford's middle schools.

They are being abolished as the city moves from a three-tier to two-tier system of education, in line with the rest of the county.

SOS campaigners lost a plea in the High Court in March for a judicial review into the reorganisation after a judge ruled that their application had been submitted too late.

Mr Hussain, who has a garage in Clifton Hampden, is anxious to stop the closure of Milham Ford School, the city's only girls' school, which is due to move from its present site off Marston Road into new buildings at Oxford School, east Oxford, as part of the shake-up.

He recognised that the new campaign was now Muslim-led. He has already put a significant sum of money towards SOS legal costs and has been promised £1,000 from another Muslim family.

He said: "If you asked Muslims in Oxford if they wanted Milham Ford to stay open, 99 per cent would say 'yes'."

He said if the battle for single-sex education was lost, he and other Muslim parents would move out of Oxford to live in an area that provided the education they wanted.

Teresa Munby, SOS legal spokesman, said: "If Mr Hussain has decided that he wishes to continue with the legal action, we wish him well with it."

John Mitchell, for Oxfordshire County Council, said: "Any distraction from the proper focus on ensuring that the reorganisation proceeds smoothly and efficiently is to be regretted.

"If necessary, however, the local education authority remains ready, as it always has been, to provide a robust defence of the move to a two-tier system and the proper democratic processes which have preceded it."