A SENIOR education officer claimed county schools threatened with closure under now withdrawn council plans were victims of their own success.

In response to Fairfield head Christopher Barker’s comments that the secondary school, rated “outstanding” in a recent Ofsted inspection, was not applauded enough by the council, the LEA’s George Salmon said it was one of the best results ever but that such achievements made it difficult to secure government funding.

“We are the third lowest funded authority in the country and part of our problem is that when we go back to government and say this is unfair they throw back at us that our schools and pupils do receive a high quality of education,” he said.

His comments came at a Hay Festival debate chaired by its founder Peter Florence last Thursday called “The Schools Crisis and After”, following January proposals to close or merge 37 schools across the county.

Mr Salmon said Fairfield, along with all other county schools, was applauded but low funding levels combined with falling numbers of women of child bearing age were causing problems.

But he assured hundreds of parents and pupils in attendance that no closures would happen before 2011 and a public consultation was planned this year.

Mr Barker had told the audience and fellow panelists – Herefordshire Conserva-tive candidate Jesse Norman, Mr Salmon and journalist Mathew Engel – that the school also came 12th in a list of 56 schools assessed nationally by the Specialist Schools Trust (SST) in terms of how much pupils progressed between the age of 11 and 16.

He said: “The Specialist Schools Trust in London can applaud my school, my staff, my parents, my pupils, my governors – it’s a shame Herefordshire can’t.” He also explained how the January proposals had affected a “small, funny little school”.

“I was told I was going to be redundant, I was told my staff were going to be redeployed. We have never received an apology from anyone,” he said.

Mr Norman talked of a need to get away from an “absurdly urban-centric” view of funding he said had been present in the last 10 years.

Other political figures who spoke included Preston-on-Wye councillor Philip Price, who has recently been given cabinet responsibility for schools’ improvement. He said more jobs were needed to bring young people back into Herefordshire after they had completed their university education.

Herefordshire Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate Sarah Carr also talked about a “closure culture” among schools, post offices and farms. She urged the council to think of the social consequences of its actions.