A community has enlisted the services of a law firm to mount a legal challenge against the closure of a local primary school.

Residents, parents and children in the Cradoc County Primary School community have come together to oppose the planned closure of the school.

Solicitors Watkins & Gunn have agreed to take on their case, and, acting on behalf of the group, have written to Powys County Council challenging their decision.

The council has been given 14 days to respond. If the group do not hear back from them in this time, they have said they will be issuing judicial review proceedings, without notice.

The council’s cabinet agreed back in December to close the 95-pupil site, which is on the outskirts of Brecon.

The decision to close Cradoc School, and subsequent plans to merge it with Mount Street Infants and Junior schools, has provoked strong objections from both within the community and from across the political spectrum.

Conservative councillor Iain McIntosh, who quit his cabinet post following the decision in December, is one of the members of the group set to launch the legal challenge.

Cllr McIntosh said: “Over the last eighteen months, all residents, parents, children and I have been faced with the closure of our primary school. Since the very first day, each and every one of us has known that closing Cradoc School is not the right thing to do, not only for all our children, but for the wider community too, who rely on the school for extra curricular activities. Since that first day, the council’s proposal to close our school has been flawed; the council has failed to apply the presumption against the closure of rural schools by considering our school within the same proposal as two urban schools. The council has failed to consider all other reasonable alternatives, and failed to adequately measure the impact of this school closure on our community. They have also demonstrated pre-determination and misled members of the public during the consultation stage, by inaccurately reporting the number of pupils our school can hold.

“I’m therefore pleased to be able to announce that, together with the help of other members of the community, we have secured the services of a solicitor who not only agrees with our concerns, but has just written to the council to lay out the reasons for our legal challenge and given the council 14 days to respond. I urge the education department at Powys County Council to take this proposal off the table, immediately, and instead, give us the new school I have been asking for, for the last three years.”

The group have found five grounds of challenge, which are:

• Failure to apply the presumption against the closure of rural schools.

• Failure to consider all reasonable alternatives to closure.

• Impact on the Community.

• Pre-determination of the issue/Fettering of the Council’s discretion.

• Pupil numbers and school capacity.