A MOTHER'S bid to save a Bury school from closure has been dismissed by a High Court judge in London as "trivial".

Tracy Bradley, who wanted a judicial review, had argued that the process by which it was decided that St Paul's CofE Primary School should close in August, had been "tainted by illegality".

But Mr Justice Mackay said she had left it too late to pursue her claim that the initial decision to close the school had been wrongly taken by an executive committee of Bury Council last May, when it could only lawfully have been taken by the full council.

The committee's decision, made on the basis of "surplus places" at the school, was later confirmed by the Bury Schools Re-organisation Committee, and by the independent Bury Schools Adjudicator.

The judge said the adjudicator's decision that St Paul's should close, and its pupils sent to St Andrew's Primary School had been reached after a "careful analysis" of arguments.

on both sides.

Ms Bradley, who was legally aided, had her judicial review challenge dismissed.

Her counsel, Mr Marc Beaumont, argued that the adjudicator had been wrong to make site visits to St Paul's and St Andrew's, when pupils at at least one of the schools had left for the day.

But the judge said of that ground of challenge: "I regard this as a trivial criticism of the adjudicator's work."

The judge also rejected claims that there had been an "appearance of bias" on the adjudicator's part, because he made the site visits when accompanied by one of the local authority team working on the case.

Mr Beaumont also argued the adjudicator had made his decision on the basis of flawed statistic; as to the demographics of the area; but the judge ruled there was "nothing even arguably unlawful" about his final decision.