IT should come as little surprise that the spotlight has turned on one of our small village schools and its viability called into question. With only 16 pupils at Langcliffe - and that will be just 11 next year - it was inevitable that the county council would eventually ask some awkward questions about finance.

There is absolutely no question mark over the quality of the school. Having seen for ourselves, this is unarguably a warm, friendly, school with superb facilities, a fantastic setting and a united front of parents and teachers with a deep commitment to the children.

It is, alas, a victim of the slow lingering death facing many Dales communities. It's not so much about rich professionals moving in to commute to offices in Leeds or Manchester. Society has changed and not only are such families a fact of life, they should be recognised, and indeed welcomed, as the new lifeblood of the village.

The real villains of this piece are the weekend cottagers, who bring little to our Dales communities except inflated house prices. One family's country bolthole is another family's one way ticket out of the village.

Langcliffe was eerily silent this week. Once, when the mills were in full swing, 196 children were cramped into the building. Now the children's voices are barely heard. Langcliffe is rapidly becoming a village of retired persons and weekend cottages.

We have seen enough closures in these parts to know whenever a school closes, a little bit of the village dies. There is no turning back. And if Langcliffe comes under threat today, there are other schools with similar small numbers which must be feeling uneasy.

And yet Langcliffe is attempting to turn the tide. The parents, or rather the village itself, want to be given a chance to attract more pupils and have a strategy taking shape to do just that. They need to stress the activities which set the school apart, and the joys of being educated in a small school with individual attention for each child.

What they also need is a realistic chance to make it work. They will be doomed to failure if parents know that the school has a timetable for closure.

The county council stresses that no decision has been made yet and that it gives great support to small village schools. Both assertions are true. What they should do is give an unequivocal statement of support to Langcliffe School for the medium term.

If, in five years, the village has failed in its attempts to nurture school numbers, then the case for closure will be indisputable. It is a hard task for these committed parents and governors but the least they deserve is to be given a chance.