A HARD fought battle to save Tosside School from closure has been lost.

The Secretary of State has made the decision to close the 180-year-old school from August 31. He cited several reasons for his decision, including that the school did not have a "viable future". Pupil numbers were low and likely to remain so and some local parents had already chosen to send their children to other schools.

Lancashire county councillor Hazel Harding, chairman of the education and cultural service committee said: "It was the authority's view that the educational interests of the children were not best served by maintaining this very small school. Now that the decision has been made the authority will use its experience to ensure a smooth transition to the new pattern of primary school provision in the area."

The decision has dismayed the small community who had fought to keep the school open.

James Waddington, of Tosside, who is a governor at the school, said he was devastated by the news, especially as two of his children Edward, seven, and Alice, six, are pupils there. His eldest son Matthew, 13, also attended the school and his youngest son George, three, was due to attend.

He said: "It's pretty devastating. We're losing a school which has been there 180 years. It'll have quite a big impact on us and nothing yet has been said on how the children will be transported."

Mr Waddington added that there would be an extra journey of about an hour each way on a bus when his children transferred to a new school. "There'll be a lot of early mornings and standing at the end of a farm track in the winter months for my children now."

Judith Carter, vice-chairman of Tosside School Governors said: "I just feel very sad for the pupils and parents who send their children to the school at the moment, but I particularly feel sad for the village and community. I think young children are the nucleus of a community and I believe the school helped to provide that nucleus.

"The school will most likely shut on July 13 for the summer holidays and the governing body will be discussing very soon the run up to this. We'll probably have one last open day because it's an end of an era, there's been a school in Tosside for generations and it's very sad.

"The campaign group could not have done a finer job, they did everything they could."

Lancashire County Council agreed the rural school should face closure last October. Parents had fought to keep the school open since council chiefs released a consultation document saying it was considering closure because of the high running costs. The document said the school had a capacity for 42 children but had 33 places unfilled. It added that eight other children in the village attended schools in Giggleswick and Rathmell.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.