Herefordshire Council has been blamed for the lastminute dashing of Dilwyn School’s academy dream.

Still angry at the sudden switch in fortune, the school’s supporters said this week that council officials made it “impossible” for the government to sign the bid off.

In the words of one of those supporters, school trustee and governor Tom Hawksley, parents had been left “spitting with fury” by the reverse.

Head of school John Gerrish acknowledged the anger, turning it on the council.

“The school came close to academy status, the order having been signed by the minister Lord Hill, but briefing by council officials made it impossible for Lord Hill to sign the funding agreement that would have completed the process,”

claimed Mr Gerrish.

Herefordshire Council, consistent in its argument that Dilwyn, as the county’s smallest school, cannot survive, said it had only responded to the government’s request for information the authority had on the school, the council’s cabinet having voted for the school’s closure last year.

Around 18 pupils are due to return to Dilwyn school next week, but it will be an independent school that they are going back to, “rebranded” as St Mary’s Church of England primary school and staffed entirely by volunteers and funded by donations.

Mr Gerrish said that despite the “devastating disappointment” of the academy turnaround, the community had rallied to prepare the school for opening.

“Contributions are pouring in, whether it be a box of pencils or a cash donation,”

said Mr Gerrish.

N o r t h Herefordshire MP Bill Wiggin, supporting the school’s fight to stay open, said the Minister suggested going for academy status would be a quicker way of achieving that aim.

But Dilwyn didn’t have the “outstanding”

ratings from Ofsted that are a major factor in securing academy status, and civil servants had asked for more information to re-evaluate the order as signed, said Mr Wiggin.

“In hindsight it would have been more helpful to go for free school status to keep Dilwyn in the state system,” he said.