§ MR. SHACKLETON (Lancashire, Clitheroe)To ask the Secretary to the Board of Education whether he is aware that a Board, now a council, school has existed in Worsthorne, Lancashire, for many years, and is still a recognised working and necessary school under the Education Acts, and that an attempt is being made to bring about the closing of the council school and to leave the inhabitants no school for their children to attend but a Church of England school; and, if so, whether the Board of Education will make inquiry into the matter and enter into communication with the Lancashire education authority, with the view of preventing the closing of a school which is required in order to afford a choice of schools to the inhabitants of Worsthorne.
(Answered by Sir William Anson.) The Worsthorne Council School is still open, and cannot be closed without the consent of the Board under Section 18 of the Elementary Education Act of 1870. No application for such consent has yet been received from the Lancashire local education authority, and until it is there appears to be no ground for the intervention of the Board.