Parents remain cautious (From Ledbury Reporter)

Parents remain cautious

8:00pm Thursday 14th February 2008

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SUSPICIOUS parents are refusing to drop their guard despite assurances from Herefordshire Council that plans to merge Eastnor and Bosbury Primary Schools have been shelved for the time being.

In a move widely-viewed as a U-turn by the authority, council leader Roger Phillips has promised that there were be no closures of any county high schools during the current administration, which ends in 2011.

The saves the Queen Elizabeth High School in Bromyard for at least the next three years.

The future of Eastnor and Bosbury primaries looks similarly assured.

Under the early draft proposals, Eastnor would have been shut and a "new" merged school created on the Bosbury site.

Cllr Phillips has pledged to only look at the closure of primary schools with fewer than 36 pupils, - and there are none in the Ledbury area.

This rule is in line with the authority's existiing "Small Schools Policy".

He added: "Any future drafting of any changes affecting Herefordshire Schools will involve heads, governors, parents, the local community and local ward councillors."

But Lois Owen, spokesman for a steering group set up to fight the proposed merger of Eastnor and Bosbury primaries said: "Yes, it's good news. But what had happened was a wake-up call and we will not be complacent.

"There's a lack a trust now, because this is quite a startling turn around.

"Some parents are stil very suspicious. But we have been given a breathing space for half-term."

She pledged that the steering group, which had a presence at Wednesday's schools rally in Hereford, would not simply disband but would remain vigilant.

Ledbury's mayor, Kay Swinburne said: "The draft proposals for schools in the Ledbury area never made any sense.

"The most important thing for me now is that any changes to schools should be approved by the schools concerned and the communities, - and not be imposed from above."

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