Brighton & Hove City Council votes to go ahead with school closures

The head teacher at St Bartholomew's said falling pupil numbers in the city have been an issue for about 10 years

The closure of two primary schools looks set to go ahead after councillors voted in favour of the plans.

After a five hour meeting on Monday evening, plans to close St Peter's in Portslade and St Bartholomew's in Brighton will now proceed.

Teachers at both schools have already voted to take industrial action.

Brighton & Hove City councillor Jacob Taylor said: "We have decided with great regret and sadness to proceed with the proposals".

Speaking to BBC Radio Sussex, he said: "It is our job as a council to make sure the movement of pupils to other schools goes well and they are supported.

"We are reacting to help parents whose children have SEND [special educational needs and disabilities] and we are acting accordingly."

Previously, the council said it is dealing with a huge predicted surplus of school places, with an estimate it will reach 832 by 2027.

Parents staged a protest outside Hove Town Hall on Monday ahead of the meeting

It told BBC South East: "The numbers as they are today are in crisis point. We are taking this action to make schools more sustainable in our city."

Mr Taylor added that St Peter's primary school is "unviable", with just 65 or 70 children out of a capacity of 210.

"That's smaller than some year groups at other schools and their budget does not work," he said.

"The last thing we wanted to do was to close schools."

Six other schools in the city have also been asked to shrink their intakes.

Speaking after the decision, Green councillor Chloë Goldsmith said: "I am appalled that in the face of such strong opposition to their school closure plans, Labour councillors could not bring it upon themselves to even consider exploring a set of alternatives."

The council has two more meetings in February and March concerning how to take the plans forward, but it intends to close the schools at the end of the academic year.