PARENTS face an anxious wait to see whether plans to close a 170-year-old primary school will go ahead.

Flintshire Council’s proposal to amalgamate Lixwm Primary School onto a new single site with nearby Brynford, has been met with strong opposition.

About 80 per cent of people who responded to a recent public consultation were against the move, voicing concerns over the impact on the wellbeing of pupils, as well as their education.

Cabinet members are set to run the rule over the controversial plans on Tuesday after the authority received a total of 229 responses from parents, staff, community members and carers.

And 21 responses were also received from upset youngsters, mostly from Lixwm, who expressed their sadness at the possible closure of their school.

Ahead of the crunch meeting, Lixwm school governor Mark Cockburn said he was worried that the move would disrupt his son’s education, but hopes closure can be avoided by re-examining the option to enter a confederation with Brynford.

He said: “Obviously the feeling from Lixwm is that we don’t want the amalgamation because we want to keep the school in our village, nothing has changed from our point of view.

“The main concern for my son is that he went to Brynford very early days and he didn’t get on very well there, they didn’t nurture him as well.

“In my point of view the nurturing at Lixwm is far better than he was ever going to get at Brynford and it’s the whole disruption it’s going to cause for the children.

“We had a community meeting in Lixwm in March which Colin Everett, the chief executive of the council, attended and he was quoted as saying ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful if federation was back on the table?

“He seems a bit more receptive to the idea, but we haven’t got any indication of what he’s recommended to cabinet members.”

Governors at Brynford have previously knocked back federation plans as they felt it would add “bureaucratic issues” and not achieve cost savings.

There are three options on the table for councillors, which are to accept the  current proposal of closure, reject it or approve it with modifications.

If the current choice is agreed, the new amalgamated area school would open on September 1, 2019, initially based on the two existing sites until capital investment is in place to develop Brynford.

The council said the current Brynford site would require modernisation and an extension to ensure it meets modern standards for teaching and learning.

The proposed capacity of the school would be in the region of 150 full time pupils, with an admission number of 20.

It follows pressure from Welsh Government to address the issue of surplus places – currently 15.37 per cent in Flintshire’s primary schools – by lowering it to the national target level of 10 per cent.

Cllr Ian Roberts, cabinet member for education and youth, said: “Reviewing the future of any school is emotive and this has been a challenging review with strong community resistance from Lixwm to the proposed change.

“We, as a council however, have to balance the sensitivities of community feeling whilst ensuring our schools network remains viable and sustainable and it is essential that the council addresses the issue of inadequate school buildings at Brynford School.

“Whichever option the cabinet favours there will need to be a sustainable model of primary education within and across the two communities.

“The cabinet is giving careful and thoughtful consideration to the options before it.”