School closure decision to go to High Court review (From Free Press Series)

School closure decision to go to High Court review

Campaigners fighting to save Torfaen comprehensive school from closure are taking their case to the High Court.

Trevethin Community school in Pontypool has been ear-marked for closure by Torfaen council's education chiefs.

Councillors voted to close the school in February.

Now protesters have revealed they are to challenge the council's decision in the High Court through a judicial review. "The council thought we'd gone away, but we've been busy over the last two months drafting a document for the judicial review," said Arthur Attwood, of the Community Action Team, which is co-ordinating the fight to save the school.

He said: "Now we're back, and we mean business. We have hired a human rights lawyer, and she has assured us we have a very strong chance of overturning the decision.

"Through fund-raising drives we have enough money to begin preparing the case, and, though we cannot reveal our source at the moment, we know for a fact we can finance a judicial review."

Last autumn hundreds of parents and children marched on Pontypool's civic centre in protest at plans to close Trevethin school.

A petition bearing over 1,400 signatures has also been handed to education chiefs. The council says the school is simply no longer viable, with pupil numbers having dropped dramatically to under 400.

It plans to move pupils to West Mon and Abersychan schools with effect from July 2007, although this decision still needs to be rubber-stamped by the Assembly's education minister Jane Davidson.

Torfaen's director for education, Mike de Val, has vowed to ensure the local community of Trevethin, St Cadoc's and Penygarn - ranked 27 out of 100 in the Assembly's deprivation index of Welsh wards - does not miss out on health and education facilities.

The council's executive member for education, Councillor John Turner, said he was confident the council had "followed the appropriate and proper process" in its decision to close the school.

He said: "The decision will first be scrutinised by Jane Davidson, who has quasi-judicial powers, and if campaigners want further scrutiny, in the form of a judicial review, then fine. That is their right."