PUPILS, parents and community figures have pleaded with council officials not to close a Darlington school, only days before the final decision is made over its future.

Rise Carr Primary School, in Eldon Street, has been served with a statutory closure notice by Darlington Borough Council, after a drop in pupil numbers and the rising cost of building repairs.

The school's fate will be sealed at a School Organisation Committee meeting next Friday and a decision to close it would take effect from August 31.

In its proposals, the council says it would be difficult to sustain the school in the long-term.

The report predicted there would be 64 surplus pupil places by September 2007, and also said the school had no playing fields, and the listed building needed development costing more than £130,000.

"To ignore the problem will store up more significant problems in five to ten years time, which could impact on the life chances of future generations of Darlington pupils," it said.

Numerous letters of protest have been sent, pleading for the school's survival.

Peter Willson, chairman of school governors, said the proposal was flawed.

"It does not address the principal concern of the safety, welfare and education of the Rise Carr children," he said. "It does not acknowledge or even appreciate the hard work and dedication of the staff, governors and community, without whom we would not have come so far.

"Heritage, pride and a sense of belonging to and being part of the school and community appear to count for nothing."

The Reverend Graham Morgan, minister of Northland and Harrowgate Hill Churches, said: "All children are treated as individuals, and there is a wonderful atmosphere in the building, which is created by a sense of pride and respect in their school by all pupils.

People are surely more important than numbers and we must not forget the little people."

Children from the school's reception class each wrote letters saying why they thought Rise Carr should remain open.

Megan Tomlinson, five, said she liked getting stickers, and Troy McMasters, four, said he liked school dinners.

Billy Alderson, five, said: "I like my friends."