Big support for Onny School staying open

The campaign to save a south Shropshire primary school from closure has received a huge thumbs up from the public - after more than 800 people signed a petition in one day. The campaign to save a south Shropshire primary school from closure has received a huge thumbs up from the public - after more than 800 people signed a petition in one day. Onny Action Group, fighting for Onny Primary at Onibury, near Craven Arms, collected 816 signatures in just six hours in Ludlow yesterday. Representatives of another school at threat, Stiperstones in Snailbeach, will tonight grill education chiefs at a meeting.

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The campaign to save a south Shropshire primary school from closure has received a huge thumbs up from the public — after more than 800 people signed a petition in one day.

Members of the Onny Action Group, who are fighting to secure the future of Onny Primary School in Onibury, near Craven Arms, collected 816 signatures in just six hours on the streets of Ludlow yesterday.

It comes as parents, staff and governors at Stiperstones Primary School in Snailbeach, near Shrewsbury, one of the other seven primary schools threatened with the axe, prepared to gather to grill education chiefs at a consultation meeting tonight.

It takes place at Snailbeach Village Hall from 6.30pm.

Heather Dale, from the school's Save Stiperstones steering group, said they were planning to project a video of their campaign song "Don't Go Stiperstones" on the wall of the village hall.

They will also be playing the song to council officials and the general public as they make their way into the hall.

Onny campaigners have claimed their achievement is all the more remarkable as they collected the signatures on a day when the town's market, which attracts scores of shoppers to Ludlow, was not operating.

Sarah Walker-Evans, who was part of a team of seven from the Onny Action Group who took to the streets wearing their campaign T-shirts, said they visited shops and supermarkets as well as canvassing people on the streets.

She said: "We started at about 9.30am and planned to go on for a few hours but everyone in Ludlow has been so supportive. We've done so much better than we expected and we are delighted."

It comes just two days after more than 70 people attended an official consultation meeting at the school to grill Shropshire Council officials over the proposals to close the school in summer 2012.

The school is one of eight primaries in the county facing the axe under plans to tackle what Shirehall bosses have claimed are falling pupil numbers. The Wakeman secondary in Shrewsbury is also due to close in July 2013 as part of the proposals.

Meanwhile, a leading Liberal Democrat MP from the south of England is lending his support to any cross-party campaign to preserve Shropshire schools.

Dan Rogerson, MP for North Cornwall, said he would using his contacts with coalition ministers to ask why Shropshire was "going it alone" with threats of large-scale school closures.

It comes after he was briefed by Shropshire Councillor Peter Phillips, who represents the Bishop's Castle ward, about the plans to axe schools.