HN43colley Protesters outside the governors’ meeting at Colley Lane Primary.

A PIONEERING bid by a Cradley primary school to become an academy has been stopped in its tracks after governors voted against the controversial plan.

Colley Lane would have been the first primary in the borough to go for the status but will remain in local authority control after governors gave proposals the thumbs down at a meeting on Monday night.

Scores of protesters including parents, children and councillors Tim Crumpton and Gaye Partridge picketed the governors’ meeting.

There were concerns over lack of accountability of academies and worries that the smallprint in a PFI deal which led to the rebuilding of the school would make the plan unworkable.

Cllr Crumpton said: “It is exceptional for the governors to vote this way.

“It’s a very brave decision - I hope this is the tide turning against academies in the borough and that it makes every school which wants to become an academy think twice.

”We are immensely grateful to the parents, teachers and governors who put their voices forward - they have been listened to.”

Cllr Partridge welcomed the decision saying a ballot of parents showed they were overwhelmingly against plans.

She said: “We feel relieved and vindicated. It’s a really, really good decision.

“Concerns were voiced by local people who didn’t understand what implications they could expect from proposals and those issues were never answered. We just ended up with more questions waiting to be answered.”

Headteacher John White, who spearheaded the move which would have given the school control of thousands of pounds which currently goes direct to the council for education services, declined to comment, saying it was a governors’ decision.

Chairman of governors Brian Blakemore said: “The main reason for the decision was the level of uncertainty around the Government’s academy programme.

“The three key areas for us in terms of that uncertainty were the PFI status of the school, the fact that the Government are currently reviewing the local authority involvement in academies going forward and the uncertainty around funding.

“There were a number of parents who were not happy and we held an open consultation process and took into account the views of everybody who contributed to that process.”

Critics of academy schools say parents are left with no way of holding the school to account and that schools are able to control their own admissions, time of school day and holidays with no requirement to consult anyone.