Furious parents today vowed to fight to keep their schools alive after seven primaries were threatened with closure.

"We have done it once before and we'll do it again," said mum Angela Barraclough, a former parent governor at Woodlands Primary School, Oakenshaw.

The 130-pupil school is one of seven across the Bradford district proposed for closure because they are too costly to run. And staff and governors have been told that there are not enough children in the community to make the schools viable in the future.

The other six facing closure by July 2004 are:

Hoyle Court Primary at Baildon

Leytop Primary at Allerton

Parkland at Thorpe Edge

Thorpe Primary at Idle

Cooper Lane Primary at Clayton Heights

Westwood Park Primary at Clayton heights.

Parkland and Thorpe will be merged to form a new school, as will Cooper Lane and Westwood.

Leaflets published by Wood-lands School governors explaining the situation were handed out to parents as they arrived at school yesterday.

Parents at St Andrew's playgroup sports day in the village yesterday were angry and dismayed at the news. Most of the three- and four-year-olds at the group would go on to Woodlands.

"We fought to keep the school open at the time of the education re-organisation and we will do it again," said Mrs Barraclough, 32, a single mum who has two children - Oliver, five, and Lucie, nine - at Woodlands. "We don't accept that there are not enough children - there's a lot of new building in the area. New houses are going up all the time."

Lynne Davey, 36, of Cross House Court, Oakenshaw, who has a six-year-old son Robert at the school and expects her four-year-old daughter Elizabeth to attend, said: "We will not be brow-beaten into submission. The news has come as a bombshell but we will fight it."

Wendy Windle, 36, of Ingfield, Oakenshaw, said she, like many other parents, faces a dilemma. "My eight-year-old son Thomas is at Woodlands and my daughter Elise, who is three, would normally go there," she said. "If the school is to close, do I take Thomas out now and put him in another school so eventually his sister can join him? And what school are we supposed to use? A lot of the mums don't drive."

Meanwhile, Helen Dixon, whose four-year-old son Matt-hew is due to start at Hoyle Court Primary in Baildon in September, revealed today how she only moved to the area to get her child into the school.

"We wanted Matthew and his little brother to go to Hoyle Court because it's such a small friendly school," she said.

"They've already closed two schools in Baildon and I think this is absolutely appalling. It's scandalous and if there is going to be a campaign to save the school I'll back it any way I can."

Miranda Vasey, an LEA governor at the school, said she is sure there will be a campaign to keep Hoyle Court open.

Chairman of governors Michael Heaton said: "We understand there is to be a consultation period when we will have an opportunity to make our views fully known. We are assured by the LEA that this is not a foregone conclusion."

Susan Chadwick and Kelly Bland, who both have children at Thorpe Primary in Idle, said they too would fight the decision to close their school.

Mrs Bland said: "We have both got children already at the school. It's a lovely community school and everybody feels settled there. My boy's behaviour at the school is good and he really enjoys it. There has been a great deal of reaction to this decision and we are not going to stop until something is done about it."

Mrs Chadwick said: "I mentioned the news to my son yesterday and he was adamant he would not be leaving the school.

"I have another child starting there in September who is really looking forward to it.

"Also, the head teacher has worked so hard for the school since it opened. The thought of it closing is just dreadful."

The parents are now hoping to raise support from residents in Idle and other parents of children at Thorpe Primary to try to save it from closure.

Parents at the other doomed schools were also distraught.

Carol Maclean, whose eight-year-old daughter Devon Foster attends Westwood Park Primary, said she thought the idea was "absolutely ridiculous".

She said she was stunned to read of the plan in a letter sent home with her daughter, which said her school and Cooper Lane Primary were to be merged by August 2004 to reduce the number of school places.

Ms Maclean said the pupils went through an upheaval last year when the school, formerly Horton Bank Top, moved.

"I think it's wrong," she said. "They are wanting to merge the schools but they should have decided that before we moved."

She said other parents are not happy with the planned merger either.