THE schools adjudicator has ruled against Worcestershire County Council’s controversial plans to close an award winning Stourport school.

The county council confirmed its intention last year to close Lickhill Primary School and expand Stourport Primary School to create a new two-form entry primary school on the site of the former Lickhill Middle School.

Now parents, staff and governors at the school are celebrating the adjudicator’s ruling, which has overturned the council’s decision.

Adjudicator, June Brown, said the results of the consultation had become “compromised” as a result of a recent Ofsted inspection putting the school in “special measures”.

She said this did not conform with the school’s reputation for offering a “good quality education” at the time of the consultation. The school also recently received a top Information and Communication Technology (ICT) award.

She said: “I believe circumstances have changed so radically since consultation was undertaken that I cannot regard views expressed at that time as germane.

“Consequently, I believe that the proposals in front of me are fundamentally flawed.”

Ms Brown also questioned the county council’s claim that the proposed merger “would build on the strengths of both schools” and added that the most important factors leading to higher achievement were the “quality of school leadership” and ”quality of teaching”.

She explained that the closure of the only foundation school in Stourport would reduce the level of choice available to parents.

In addition, she said the proposed closure would result in the loss of a ”significant” amount of extended services currently offered to the community, including a nursery, breakfast club, holiday club, study support for children, family learning provision and an after-school care club.

Graeme Harvey, member of Spice, a parent action group opposed to the closure, said: “The children should now be able to look forward to a future free of the uncertainty and disruption that has been forced upon them by the county council.”

He added: “The Ofsted report is currently being contested by the school and other parties, including a number of parents.

“A close examination of the statistics shows that the ‘unsatisfactory’ judgement is unfounded.”

The schools adjudicator had been given jurisdiction to decide on the matter after it was deemed the county council had failed to keep to the statutory timescale when making its decision to close the school.

When the council carried out its second consultation, it received 591 responses, 535 of which opposed the proposal.