Letter: Shropshire's small schools in the firing line

Letter: Closing small primary schools and building big "area schools" seems to have been the agenda of the Shirehall for 25 years.

In 1995, Councillor Woodvine who chaired the Education Committee was advised that small school closures was the way forward. He resisted. He told me this.

In 1998, Martin Beardwell, on becoming the Lib Dem Council Leader was advised to close small primary schools. He resisted. He told me this.

In 2005, when the Conservatives took office, they received the same advice - and bought it. Private meetings started that autumn.

The outcome was the 2008 proposal to close 24 primary schools and protests. They backed down.

The secondary scene is probably different. It was only six to nine months after the closures row started in 2007, that the council publicly admitted that the schools' deficit was for all schools, not just primaries.

The genuine concerns of larger primary schools will not be solved by closing small ones.

The proposals before council this week include consultations which are usually arranged when a closure proposal has been put forward. We are entitled to infer, therefore, that closures are envisaged, hence a timetable for them.

Councillor Keith Barrow, on becoming leader, in June 2009, announced that small school closures were off the agenda. I wish him well and offer him my support in halting the unfriendly agenda of "mass destruction".

Councillor Peter Phillips

Bishop's Castle

Electoral Division