Nervous wait for Stoney Middleton school parents

Published in Matlock Mercury on Thu 30th Nov 2006

Stoney Middleton parents face an anxious wait to see if Derbyshire County Council will scrap proposed plans to close the village school.

A public consultation period on the plans ended on November 27 and a cabinet meeting will be held on December 12 to consider the response. Pupils staff and villagers have written hundreds of letters in protest against the proposed closure. They now have to wait and see if the council will drop the idea.

A 12-page response to the closure plan was handed into Derbyshire County Council outlining why the school should stay open.

The report covers all issues from school finances to falling pupil numbers, educational achievements of pupils to the environmental and safety impact of alternative school provision.

The response concludes : "If the closure of the school does take place, the character of the community will be irreversibly changed. The immediate losers will be less advantages parents who will be burdened by the significant cost and difficulty of travel to alternative schools."

If the council does not throw the recommendations out in the cabinet meeting on December 12 it will proceed to formal consultation in early January.

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Stoney Middleton School - A vibrant school at the heart of the community.