CAMPAIGNERS have lost their battle to keep Hothfield School, near Ashford, open.

The death knell for the school – the smallest in Kent with just 30 pupils – was sounded yesterday when county education chiefs got the backing they needed to go ahead with their plans from an independent committee.

The decision has devastated parents, pupils and staff who fought for eight months to stop Kent County Council from pushing ahead with closure as part of a drive to cut thousands of spare places from primary schools in all parts of Kent.

The school had hoped that it would get another chance to argue for a reprieve by persuading members of Kent’s School’s Organisation Committee – an independent group made – that a final decision should be made by the Schools Adjudicator.

But that hope vanished when the committee, made up of county councillors, parent groups and church representatives, voted unanimously to back closure.

Angry parents said KCC had put money before education and of presenting misleading information to justify the case for closure.

Chairman of governors Ron Carden told the committee that while the school had had a "chequered history", it was on the way up, with standards improving.

"There have been times in the past when I would not have been surprised by closure. But not any more. Thanks to a supreme effort from the staff, supported by the education authority, the school can now claim to be one of the most improved in the county," he said.

Although pupil numbers had fallen, only recently five more children had wanted to come to the school, but had gone elsewhere because of the threat of closure, he added.

After the meeting, he said: "The village will regret this decision and it could turn around to bit KCC, which produced the worst-case scenario. The children will go on getting a good education until we close."

Local Ashford councillor Neil Wallace, who also addressed the meeting, said Hothfield was unlike other villages in Ashford in being relatively poorer and that the presence of a school would help bring new blood to the community.

He said: "I see Hothfield falling off the radar. To bring the village together, it is very clear we need a school in terms of integrating new families." he said.

Philip Holloway, chairman of the Hothfield Parents Action Group, said KCC could have afforded to give the school a stay of execution to allow pupil numbers to build up.

"All we asked for was a chance to prove the school could continue to turn itself around. We won’t know now what we could have achieved. I am deeply disappointed that KCC did not see just why Hothfield needs its school and failed to put children’s interests first."

But KCC education cabinet member Cllr John Simmonds said that while he had "a great deal of sympathy" with parents, he could not see how the school could survive in the face of falling pupil numbers.

"The chief driving force behind this is the fact that there are just 30 pupils. In one class, you have four separate year groups…that is not good news but that is not to say the school does not cope well. Half the village do not send their children to this school. The cost per pupil is almost two times that of other schools. Is that value for money?"

The school will close its doors to pupils at the end of the summer.