PARENTS of pupils at a York primary school have challenged the council claim that their children will receive an improved service if it closes.

Oaken Grove Primary School, Haxby, looks set to close if council proposals are passed by a full meeting of the City of York Council after the ruling Labour executive gave them the go-ahead.

Mary Almond, secretary of the Oaken Grove Parents' Action Group, reminded councillors that the school had recently received a good Ofsted report and quoted a passage from the report about it being a caring school.

She said: "How can this be an improved service when it means 80 children moving from Oaken Grove will increase class sizes and cause disruption on both sides and emotional distress to the children?"

She said parents would not have the same choice to send children to a small community school.

"This proposal to close Oaken Grove is about money and politics, it is not about putting children first."

David Park, a governor from nearby Ralph Butterfield Primary School, one of the other three primaries in Haxby and Wigginton, said they broadly supported the proposals and councillors agreed to his request that they be represented on a working group looking at future uses of the Oaken Grove building.

Chris Edwards, acting education director at the City of York Council, said there were four good schools in the area, but Oaken Grove was facing the biggest challenge with falling rolls.

He said: "The reason we looked at the school's future was because the head teacher left and the school was facing probably making four staff redundant over the next two or three years.

"The governing body have worked incredibly hard over the last few years to recruit more children - there just aren't enough children in Haxby and Wigginton to sustain four schools."

Councillors also backed proposals to develop two new primary schools at Kingsway Junior and Burton Green Infant schools at Clifton, and to close Shipton Street School.

They also approved the proposed merger of Westfield Junior and Infant Schools at Acomb and the closure of Northfield Special School's nursery.

The proposals will come before full council on January 9.