CAMPAIGNING parents trying to save a village school lost their High Court battle on Thursday.

Save Affetside School Action Group won the right for a Judicial Review into Bury Schools Organisation Committee's (SOC) decision to close the 123-year-old village school.

But a High Court judge decided that the committee acted legally in making its decision.

Mrs Wendy Louden, a mother of three children at the school, was extremely disappointed at the outcome of the hearing.

She said: "Sitting in the court, we found the atmosphere was very difficult and the parents and supporters present more or less expected this result. But it has been worthwhile taking our fight so far for the sake of our children."

Another disappointed parent, Kay Loxham, said: "The outcome of the hearing has been one of a series of disappointments, but parents remain highly motivated. Fighting the system is always difficult but any parent will know the people who matter here are the children. They have not yet seen justice and they deserve it."

Coun Steve Perkins, Bury Council's executive member for lifelong learning, said he was pleased by the outcome as it was a "common sense" decision.

The SOC decided to close Affetside to help the LEA address the problem of falling school rolls in the borough. But the action group claimed that the procedure by which it reached that decision was grossly unfair, breaching Department for Education and Skills (DfES) guidelines in a number of areas. The grounds for the challenge were constitutionality, bias and a claim based on the issue of surplus capacity at Affetside.

But in a reserved judgement, Mr Justice Lightman, yesterday ruled in favour of the SOC and said it had arrived at its decision "properly and fairly".

The action group now has until January 13 to make a formal application to the Court of Appeal.

Coun Perkins said: "As a council, we felt all along that we had taken a proper and well considered decision over Affetside and that SOC had done likewise. That has now been more than vindicated by the High Court. While I understand fully the motivation of those involved in trying to keep the school open, I believe the time has now come for us to work together and ensure that the transfer of pupils from Affetside goes as smoothly as possible."

Mrs Dawn Robinson-Walsh, chairman of the school governors and a parent of two children at the school, said the legal decision did not reflect the morality of the situation.

"Parents at the school are finding there are no available places in neighbouring Harwood, or at popular schools in Bury," she said. "It is time for sense to prevail and for Affetside, as a quality border school offering high standards of education (as witnessed by their excellent recent Key Stage 2 SATs results) to have this closure threat removed and to work dynamically to raise numbers and improve cost-effectiveness. I believe it can be done if the school is given a chance.

"In view of the Audit Commission's recent Best Value inspection, where Bury was rated "weak", the local authority needs to seriously reconsider its approach to educational provision.

"This could be a chance to prove that they are willing to listen and be proactive, not just closing highly-performing schools in a political fashion."

Campaigners have vowed to fight on to save the school, even though the LEA will now work towards its closure.

Coun Perkins added: "There has been enough uncertainty hanging over their education. Now we need to move forward and work in the best interests not only of the children at this school, but at all our schools in the borough."