DEFIANT governors at a Malvern school have vowed to continue to fight to save their school after Worcestershire education chiefs sounded the death knell for it.

Education officers at Worcest-ershire County Council had been discussing since last June what to with Malvern Hills Primary School.

It followed several scathing inspection reports and, at a meeting earlier this month, the council's cabinet sealed its fate when it agreed that it should close in August 2006.

But, speaking to the Worcester News, a defiant Di Rayner - vice governor of the school and a county council member - said governors, parents and teachers had not given up and were busy putting a case together to appeal against the decision.

At the earlier cabinet meeting she said the nearest alternative schools were two miles away, but her pleas for the school to be given another chance fell on deaf ears.

Speaking last week, she said she felt they had a strong case in that it was a local school serving a local community and problems with declining pupil numbers were not helped by the uncertainty hanging over its following the negative inspection reports.

She added: "The governors feel very strongly we've been let down and more importantly we feel the school has been let down.

"There's a hard core of people who have been involved in that school over a number of years with its ups and downs and we're prepared to fight this decision."

And Coun Rayner - also leader of Malvern Hills District Council - hit out at the decision at a full meeting of the council last week, describing it as an 'evil idea' and asking what the authority was planning to do with the site.

County council spokeswoman for children's services Liz Eyre, said it would be inappropriate to comment as the decision was yet to go to the Schools' Orga-nisation Committee.