A long running campaign to keep a small village school open which won the backing of the local community, has failed to persuade the county council to keep it operating.

Pupils, staff and governors of Llanbedr Church in Wales School in Crickhowell fought hard to try and persuade decision makers not to go ahead with closure plans.

The school community urged everyone in the surrounding area to take part in the consultation pledging the case to keep the school open.

Powys County Council says it wants to close the school as part of its plan to rationalise primary school provision.

A recommendation to close Llanbedr CIW will go before cabinet on November 9.

The closure proposal was put forward by Powys County Council which is looking to reconfigure and rationalise the primary school provision in the county as part of its Strategy for Transforming Education in Powys 2020-2030.

The school criticisied the county council over its rationalistion plan saying youngsters would be split up from their friends and have to travel out of the area to go to other schools.

A spokesperson for the school said: ‘‘Yet again Powys County Council are forging ahead with proposals to close another small rural school with excellent educational standards despite the acknowledged major detrimental effects on the local community yet alone the children, parents and staff.

‘‘Any concerns are dismissed with the stock reply of “Powys County Council are committed to improving learner experience and entitlement for all its children” yet doing nothing for our children.

‘‘The governors and parents are not convinced after seeing the way the concerns of its own Scrutiny Committee over the closure of Dolau School were completely ignored that our school will do any better. We would hope that the elected County Councillors who make up the Cabinet would have the courage to come out in the open and support rural communities thereby halting the destruction Powys County Council officers seem determined to forge ahead with. The pandemic has proved time and again that community is what keeps everything and everyone going yet Powys County Council does not seem to have leaned that lesson.

‘‘It is heartening that our Senedd members James Evans and Jane Dodds and our MP Fay Jones have put aside party politics and stand beside us unlike Powys Cabinet members.’’

The county council are due to discuss the findings of the consultation report at the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, November 9.

Cabinet will also be asked to continue with the process to close Llanbedr Church in Wales School.

If given the go-ahead, the council will publish a statutory notice formally proposing the change.

It would then be required to consider another report to conclude the process.

Cllr Phyl Davies, cabinet member for education and property, said: “We would like to thank all those who took part in the consultation exercise for this proposal.

“After carefully considering all the consultations responses, the recommendation that I will be putting forward to cabinet is to continue with the proposal by publishing the statutory notice formally proposing the closure of Llanbedr Church in Wales School.

“We are committed to transforming the learner experience and entitlement for our learners and we will achieve this by delivering our Strategy for Transforming Education in Powys 2020-2030. Our strategy is ambitious and we believe it will give our learners the best possible start they deserve. However, as we start to implement it, we will be faced with significant decisions as we look to address some of the challenges facing education in Powys which include the high proportion of small schools, decreasing pupil numbers and the high number of surplus places. This recommendation has not been reached lightly but we have ensured the best interest of the learners at this school were at the forefront of our decision-making. If this school is to close, then learners would be attending schools that would be better equipped to meet the requirements of the new national curriculum and provide a wider range of educational and extra-curricular opportunities.”

The Learning and Skills Scrutiny Committee will consider the proposal today (November 4).