The campaign to reverse the decision to close Cradoc primary school has suffered a blow following the failure of a legal challenge against Powys County Council.

But campaigners remain defiant and say the fight to save Cradoc “will continue.”

The first phase of merger of Cradoc with Mount Street junior and infant schools in Brecon will now happen on August 31, 2024.

They will become one school under one governing body and teaching management team but operate from three sites.

The second phase is to build a new 360-place school on the former Brecon High School site by 2025/26 – with the three school sites closed.

Earlier this month Mr Justice Lane issued a written decision from Cardiff Administrative Court refusing the judicial review on several grounds.

In his judgment, Justice Lane said: “The claimants reliance upon the procedural presumption against closure of a rural school is misplaced.

“The code requires a defendant to follow a more detailed to follow a more detailed set of procedures where closure of a rural school is concerned.

“The reasons for closure must be clearly identified.

“Both of these requirements were unarguably met by the defendant in respect of Cradoc school.

“The defendant was not required to consider only challenges faced by Cradoc itself to the exclusion of the wider defendant’s wider education strategy.”

Justice Lane said that the council had looked at whether a new school building could be built at Cradoc as well as possibly merging with Sennybridge.

The council had also done a Community Impact Assessment and Integrated Impact Assessment of the proposal.

Justice Lane said: “The defendant did consider ways in which the effect of closing Cradoc school, the only building in Yscir ward would be mitigated.”

Cllr Iain McIntosh resigned from the previous Independent/Conservative cabinet in 2021 when the decision to merge the schools was taken and has fought to keep Cradoc open.

Cllr McIntosh said: “This is a significant blow for parents, children, teachers, and staff at Cradoc.

“We truly believed the council had breached parts of Welsh Government’s School Organisation Code, by not considering all options to keep our school open.

“The council should have treated Cradoc school, as a rural school, differently to both Mount Street urban schools.

“Neither the code nor the extra presumption against rural school closures is worth the paper it’s written on.

“The ramifications following this decision are enormous for Welsh rural primary schools.

“I have written to the current Welsh Education Minister, Jeremy Miles MS, asking for a meeting.

“I will also request that the code is rewritten, to prevent further ambiguous interpretation by Welsh local authorities.

“The fight to save our school will continue.”

The claimants have a week to lodge an appeal against the decision – but Cllr McIntosh says they have been advised not to do this.

A spokesman for Powys County Council said: “We have received notification of the judge’s decision.”