Protest call at Shropshire village school closure

Monday 1st August 2011, 11:27AM BST.

Worried parents have been urged to bombard council chiefs with their objections to a plan to close a Shropshire village school.

A six-week consultation will start next week on plans to close Ifton Heath Primary School in St Martins and send its pupils to the merged Rhyn Park Secondary School. Shropshire Council bosses say the move will safeguard Rhyn Park School and help the authority meet budget constraints.

The unitary council has promised to invest £3.1 million in the new-look school and has said the shake-up is the best option for village education.

But St Martins Parish Council has called for the merger to be scrapped, voicing fears that the move is not in the best interests of the primary school age pupils.

An extraordinary parish council meeting heard on Wednesday that parents were already voting with their feet and had started pulling their children out of Ifton Heath in protest at the merger plans.

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