CAMPAIGNERS battling to save Affetside Primary School have vowed to fight on despite the decision by education bosses to bring down the curtain on its 123-year history.

Lawyers are being briefed on the possibility of a court challenge after Bury's Schools Organisation Committee sanctioned the school's closure on Monday.

The meeting was the latest round in a six-month struggle for the Save Affetside School Action Group (SASAG), who had hoped to force a review of the closure by Government adjudicators.

Parents, governors and villagers attended to present and support their case for the Watling Street school to remain open for at least the next four years.

But defending their plan, local education authority representatives stressed that falling pupil numbers at the school made the cost of educating each child too high to maintain.

The time had come for tackling Bury's abundance of surplus places, they said, and the "very serious" situation had been allowed to continue for too long.

Closure of the school would save £77,490 per year, which could be redistributed to other schools in Bury.

Chief education officer Harold Williams told the committee: "We cannot continue to pretend as a local authority that we can support a declining number of pupils across the same number of schools.

"We have schools withering on the vine which are having to make teachers redundant because the pupil numbers aren't there.

"Clearly urgent action is needed to make sure that this situation does not continue."

Members of SASAG argued that Affetside, which currently has 49 pupils, could fill more places in the next four years by promoting itself better.

This would bring down the cost of teaching per pupil, and eliminate excess capacity. New methods of calculating capacity would make this easier to achieve, reducing the number of spaces available from 80 to 53.

Chairman of governors Mrs Jenny Gregson said: "We talk about the family of schools, but it appears that Bury is about to cast out one of its smallest and most vulnerable members. Does the 'family' not exist any more?" Following a 25-minute recess, committee members emerged to cast their group votes unanimously in favour of the closure. No reasons for the decision were given by committee members.

Stunned parent Alison Salvin, of Woolfold, said: "This is our worst fear.

"The standard of education of our children will suffer dramatically."

Parent governor Ms Dawn Robinson-Walsh told the Bury Times that Affetside had been treated as "a sacrificial lamb".

She said that a team of lawyers had been contacted through the Manchester University Law Centre, who would be looking at the possibility of a judicial review or complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman. Issues such as the degree of consultation and whether Affetside qualified for the special status of a "rural school" could be used as the basis for any challenge.

She said: "We were not given any reasons for the way the voting went. People can appararently just go behind closed doors and make the decision without telling us what was discussed.

"Currently we are investigating every avenue and asking lots of questions of different people. We will take this as far as we can. The problem will not go away."

The building was erected by villagers in the 1840s, and became a day school in 1879.

Plans to press ahead with the merger of Radcliffe Infant School and Radcliffe Junior School were also passed at the meeting.

Proposals for St Paul's CE Primary in Ramsbottom, St John's CE Primary and St Mark's CE Primary in Bury, as well as Fishpool Infant School and St Chad's Junior School, will be discussed by the committee in September.