HC Deb 20 December 1983 vol 51 cc255-6
1. Mr. Beith

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether his decision to allow Northumberland education authority to close Beadnell village school at the second application was based on any change of general policy towards village schools.

The Under-Secretary of State for Education and Science (Mr. Bob Dunn)

No, Sir.

Mr. Beith

As there was no change of circumstances at the school between the first and second applications, why does the Minister think that his predecessor was wrong to refuse the original application? Is he aware that Northumberland and other authorities regard the decision as a signal of a change in general policy and that he will shortly receive another application to close a village school at Craster in Northumberland?

Mr. Dunn

When my right hon. Friend wrote to the hon. Gentleman on 25 July he made it clear that he decided to approve the authority's new proposal to close the school because circumstances had changed. Numbers of pupils at the school were likely to fall. The extent of the decline might be a matter for disagreement, but there is no doubt that the school would have been extremely small and that the educational disadvantages which that inevitably entails would have come about. Moreover, the authority had agreed to make arrangements for transport to alternative Church schools if parents so desired.