HOPES have risen of keeping open a closure-threatened village primary school after a shake-up of county council education chiefs.

Longdon St Mary’s CE Primary School is due to shut at the end of the academic year because of dwindling pupil numbers.

The decision to shut the school gates was taken by Worcestershire County Council in March, with just 28 pupils on the roll and not enough youngsters coming through in September.

But Liberal Democrat county councillor for the area Tom Wells believes it is now “feasible” the school could receive an 11th-hour stay of execution after a county council cabinet shuffle.

Previously, Conservative councillor Marcus Hart was in charge of the portfolio overseeing primary schools, but he was moved in a cabinet re-shuffle last week.

The role has now been taken up by Conservative councillor Jane Potter who becomes education and skills chief.

She has already agreed to meet the headteacher tomorrow and agreed with Coun Wells to meet some of the parents who have led a vocal campaign to raise awareness about the school’s plight, and save it from closure.

Coun Wells said it was significant because outgoing education chief Coun Hart had “never set foot in the school which he proposed closure for”.

We previously reported in your Worcester News how Worcestershire County Council, which stepped in to determine the school’s future at the invitation of the school’s governors, decided to shut it in August because not enough new pupils had signed up for the new reception class.

Since then the Friends of Longdon School have been desperately trying to get parents to sign up for the new academic year.

Coun Wells said: “It’s like a little prep school – which parents pay thousands of pounds for to educate their children – and here it is in Longdon but free of charge and state-run. Why close it?”

Coun Potter said: “I will reserve any judgement until after my meeting.”