Fight to save school goes to Westminster (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Fight to save school goes to Westminster

9:03am Thursday 25th May 2006 in Swindon

PARENTS battling to save Windmill Hill Primary School from being merged with Freshbrook Primary have taken their fight to Westminster.

Armed with a petition of 1,344 signatures a group of 23 met Schools Minister Jim Knight and South Swindon MP Anne Snelgrove at the Department for Education and Skills to voice their feelings.

Swindon Council says there will be 680 surplus places in West Swindon schools by 2009 unless they act now.

Under the plans Windmill Hill Primary School will be shut and a new two-form entry school will be built on the Freshbrook School site, merging the two together.

The council is also planning to rebuild Toothill Primary and reopen it as a single-form entry school. But nobody at Windmill Hill wants to see their school close.

Chairman of the governors Tim Poole said he will do everything in his power to make his and the rest of the school's feelings heard. "The idealistic option for us is to stay as we are," he said.

Once the petition had been handed to Mr Knight, who said he would give it serious consideration, the party met Mrs Snelgrove.

She promised to arrange a meeting between herself, the governors, director of children services Hilary Pitts and Coun Garry Perkins, Swindon Borough Council's lead member for education.

Parents were pleased they had been given the time to express their fears.

Midwife Donna Johnson, 42, who has two children, Ben, 15, and Eleanor, eight, said: "It's important to fight for the school. I think we do have a chance of keeping it open."

Alan Evans, 37, a print operator, whose ten-year-old son Benjamin attends the school, said: "Today has meant that someone has listened to us outside Swindon Council."

The schools organisation committee will cast the final vote over the school's future in July.