A COUNCIL blunder has delayed to mid-summer the final decision on a closure-threatened school.

Public notices relating to Allendale Middle School were not placed where they should have been in the area the school serves.

Northumberland County Council has admitted its fault and put back the closure programme by six weeks. Now campaigners are suggesting the delay may give the school extra time to come out of the ‘special measures’ imposed following a bad 2012 Ofsted report and remain open.

Paul Moffat, the council’s corporate director of children’s services, said: “We have been alerted to the fact that some of the public notices required to be displayed across the Haydon Bridge Schools’ Partnership catchment area may not have been displayed in the correct way.

“To ensure that all sections of the community are fully aware of the proposals and have an opportunity to make representation, we will recommence the six-week statutory notice on March 14 until April 24, 2013.

“A decision about the future of the schools in the partnership will now be made by the county council’s executive in early June. We apologise for the delay to proceedings.“

Letters are being sent to parents to explain what the hold-up will mean, but parents who campaigned for the 107-pupil Allendale Middle School to be preserved are now renewing their claims that the school should be allowed an extended chance to prove its worth. The council notices were correctly placed in the press and on the school gates, but not “in a conspicuous place in the area served by the school” as the rules demand.

Parent Steve Agar said: “My first reaction is that we now have more chance to demonstrate that AMS can quickly come out of special measures, and therefore may attract either continued local authority support or potential [academy] sponsorship.”

Parish councillor Marc Hydleman added: “This is symptomatic of how Northumberland County Council have handled the whole process. In my opinion, the school is more fit to continue than the council is to run an education department.”

A Northumberland County Council spokesman said last night: “The statutory notices propose the closure of Allendale Middle School and changes in age ranges of the other schools.

“When the six-week period closes, executive will consider any representations then make their decision.”