HUNDREDS of people have taken to the streets of a Suffolk town to protest against the controversial closure of its middle school.

Dave Gooderham

HUNDREDS of people have taken to the streets of a Suffolk town to protest against the controversial closure of its middle school.

Breckland Middle School in Brandon is one of 11 schools across the county that are scheduled for closure by 2012 as a result of plans to scrap the three-tier education system.

But campaigners have refused to go down without a fight after an impressive 350 people braved the wet weather on Saturday to stage the protest march.

And they have now been promised a meeting with education bosses at Suffolk County Council in their bid to get the decision overturned.

Eddie Stewart, chairman of the Save Breckland School (SABRES) group, said the amount of people who marched through the streets highlighted the concern in the town.

He told the EADT: “We had a fantastic turnout and we could have got up to 500 people if the weather had been better.

“We wanted to raise our profile and give people a chance to vent their feelings. We will now analyse the comments and publish the best ones.

“I think the march was a very successful stunt in our attempts to get the decision to close the school revised.”

Mr Stewart revealed that the council's school organisational review team had agreed to meet with the action group next month .

He said: “We are pleased that we will be meeting with the council and we have a presentation ready for them explaining why the school is so viable and why it shouldn't close.”

The march was the second held this month in a bid to overturn a decision made by Suffolk county councillors to close the school.

Parents in Brandon are concerned that their children's education will suffer if they have to travel ten miles to Mildenhall from the age of 11.

Objectors have six weeks to appeal with the final decision made by the Office of the Schools Adjudicator.