PARENTS battling to save a village primary school have been left devastated after a High Court judge ruled against them.

The High Court judge in London decided that Bury School Organisation Committee (SOC) had not acted illegally when voting to close Affetside Primary School on the Bolton and Bury border.

However, members of the Save Affetside School action group now hope to apply for leave of appeal and are determined to continue their fight.

Parents and friends of the 123-year-old school formed a campaign group earlier this year after Bury Council announced closure plans because of falling pupil numbers.

Bury SOC, an independent body, voted for closure in July and it is currently due to close next summer.

The parents' action group applied for a judicial review as well as asking the Government's Department for Education and Skills to investigate the closure process which they claim was flawed from day one.

The High Court action was brought by Wendy Louden, whose three children attend the school. Her barrister, Marc Beaumont, said the closure decision had been made without sufficient legal authority.

He told the court the decision should have been taken by the full council in Bury without delegation to its executive committee.

Campaigners are still awaiting the outcome of the DfES investigation.

Chairman of governors at the school and mother-of-two, Dawn Robinson-Walsh, said: "Regardless of the legal outcome so far, to have even reached the High Court suggests that the process has been extremely problematic and requires careful consideration.

"A legal decision does not of course reflect the morality of the situation."

Bury Council's executive member for education, Cllr Steve Perkins, said: "Although it was the SOC decision that was being contested, we are still pleased by the outcome of the hearing which we believe is a common sense one.

"As a council we felt all along that we had taken a proper and well considered decision over Affetside and that the SOC had done otherwise."