Hoyle Court School in Baildon may be saved from the axe but action must be taken to tackle the 185 spare places in its four primary schools, residents were told last night.
Education bosses say they may put forward alternatives which might affect the other schools - Baildon CE, Sandal Primary and Glenaire Primary - rather than close Hoyle Court as originally suggested in July. If this happens, there will be a fresh consultation period after Christ-mas, a meeting was told.
The heated public forum at Baildon's Methodist Centre drew concerned parents from all of the village's primary schools. Many of them showed their anger at Bradford Council through a series of robust questions challenging the arguments and statistics put forward by officers.
The meeting heard that there were currently 185 spare places in Baildon schools and this figure was projected, by Bradford Council, to rise to 268 over five years.
Even though no Baildon school was currently in the red, the spare places would be a financial drain and would cause them problems in future, said Council official Maggie Peel. She said the Council had an obligation to act to reduce spare capacity in the system.
Residents demanded to know what account, if any, had been taken of new house building in the Baildon area. They were told that 175 new homes were projected, including proposed schemes at Tong Park School, Tong Park Assessment Centre, West Lane Reservoir and Jenny Lane.
But people at the meeting said other developments had been missed by the education team, and accused the Council's different departments of failing to communicate with each other.
The six-week consultation period ended today.
Ms Peel said her team would now consider all responses and decide whether to press on with the original closure proposal or come up with a new idea. That could include shrinking the intake at one of the other Baildon schools, or making better use of large school buildings by finding other organisations, such as childcare or adult education groups, to share them.
Bussing in children from other parts of Bradford would impractical, she said.
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