PARENTS have been panicked into moving their children from a school under threat of closure, claims a councillor who has called-in a decision for a statutory consultation process.

Councillor Christine Walby told The Chronicle that parents in Govilon fear a 'rushed outcome' and claims Monmouthshire County Council is on the brink of making a "deeply flawed decision."

The councillor says she is backed by Verona Nelmes, chair of Governors at Govilon School as well as fellow councillors Douglas Edwards, and Roger Harris and Tony Easson.

On Wednesday, June 24 MCC's cabinet called a special meeting and received a report recommending that the formal procedure leading towards closure of Govilon and Llanover Schools should be initiated.

This would involve a statutory consultation period followed by further consideration by MCC and then a recommendation to the Welsh Assembly Government who will make the final decision.

If the process eventually leads to a closure decision the earliest possible date for closure would be September 2010 but delays and challenges would probably mean a later date.

The call in will be heard, in public, by a select committee next Thursday, July 16 at 10am. The committee has the options of referring the matter to full council, referring it back to cabinet or rejecting it.

"At least the call in should have the effect of ensuring that any formal consultation process will be delayed until after the school holidays, which would be much fairer than what MCC proposes now," said Councillor Walby.

"If the council proceeds to formal consultation and persists with their present course of action then the matter will pass to the Minister in the Welsh Assembly Government to determine. If the Minister is not convinced of the reasons given for the proposed closure then the recommended action could be thrown out at that stage. Because there are so many doubts and flaws in the arguments, I think this could well be the case – however I hope very much that MCC would see sense now and go back to the drawing board," she added.

"I and others are particularly incensed that the Cabinet proposes holding the statutory consultation on school closure mainly during the school holidays."

The Govilon School Action Group (GASG) has received the support of David Davies MP. The Group is chaired by Laurence Talbot, a former chair of the school governors and includes Verona Nelmes the present chair of governors, the county and community councillors and other interested local people.

Verona Nelmes said, "Govilon School is significantly larger than the other schools considered for closure; it is educationally sound and viable in terms of numbers of children."

The decision has panicked some parents into moving their children before a outcome is made, says councillor Walby.

"Because they can see, what apparently the LEA cannot, that Govilon children may not be accommodated in adjacent schools and some siblings and friends will be split up and have to go to different schools; this will be upsetting for children and lead to a lot of pressure and inconvenience for parents."

The action group now vows to fight "every inch of the way."

A spokesman said, "To start a formal consultation with sending letters to parents just before the school holidays start is cynical in the extreme. We have experienced threatened school closure before in Govilon but I must say the process was handled in a very much better and credible way on that occasion"

The strength of feeling in the village was well demonstrated by the turn out of more than 60 people to a public consultation meeting at the school.

Councillor Walby added, "If the school closes no Govilon child will ever be able to walk or cycle to school in future because the routes will be too dangerous. There will also be an inevitable increase in traffic around the Abergavenny area as some Govilon children are transported to schools with vacant places in Abergavenny while others cross in the opposite direction making for Llanfoist. Children from the same families are quite likely to end up going to different schools in opposite directions."

John James, community councillor, school governor and member of the committee says the process was pushed through without a review.

"Numbers have fallen but it has been sustained until recently when MCC decided to go ahead with the informal process immediately prior to the summer term. As a result of this some parents understandably were forced into a decision of, if the school did close in September 2010 then they would rather move their children now.

"This has resulted in 14 children leaving the school. This has obviously played into the hands of MCC. The figures now would appear to strengthen the decision of MCC. They have now prepared letters pre emptying the outcome of the cabinet, surely this is an abuse of their authority. They want to rush this through so the school holiday period is counted in the consultation period. It will also give all the staff at the school insufficient time to meet as the school also closes on July 16. This may also cause more children to leave the school as more panic will be caused."

At the special Cabinet meeting members quashed claims that the school holiday period would affect consultation.