Parents to fight school closure (From Western Telegraph)

Parents to fight school closure

Parents from Hermon have vowed to continue their fight after Pembrokeshire County Council ordered the closure of their primary school, along with neighbouring Blaenffos, at a cabinet meeting on Monday.

Councillors received more than 20 opposition letters but said the decision was one of the head not the heart and was necessary to improve educational facilities in north Pembrokeshire.

However, all of the Hermon parents have threatened to send their children to schools further afield rather than to the nearby and expanded Crymych School if the decision is not reversed.

Parent Chris Tomos said: "Naturally we are disappointed, but it was no great surprise. The cabinet are blinkered and they have their own agenda to follow. But the fight goes on."

Cllr John Davies, member with responsibility for children, young people and the Welsh language, said: "We know in our hearts and in our minds it is the way forward. My heart tells me to leave a 50-pupil school alone. But we are responsible, as the cabinet, to provide for all the schools in the county."

Director of education, Gerson Davies, said: "If 50 pupils do go elsewhere, you will still have better provision in the area than exists currently."

The schools will be closed at the end of the summer term with all pupils expected to transfer to Crymych the following September.

The cabinet decision will now go before the council's over-view and scrutiny committee, where it is likely to be given the final go-ahead.