SCHOOLS in Bromyard are heading for a crisis as the number of school-age children falls in an increasingly elderly population.

That is the warning from Herefordshire Council's head of policy and resources George Salmon.

He said: "We believe there are going to be 1,000 fewer pupils entering primary schools in Herefordshire within five years and in the next 15 years we expect another drop of 1,000. This means 2,000 fewer children in 15 years' time than we have at present."

Mr Salmon said that between the six primary schools in and around Bromyard, including St Peters, Bredenbury, Pencombe, Burley Gate, Brockhampton and Whitbourne, there were 106 ten-year-olds last year but only 82 four-year-olds this September, a drop of over 20 per cent.

"It doesn't sound vast but it's an indication of the whole county trend as people move into the area to retire," he said.

"We feel it will be quite drastic. It has a lot of implications in that we will get less funding from Government because funding relates to the number of children. The unit costs will increase but we'll still have to try and keep open the wide range of schools. So, for each child, it becomes more expensive to deliver services.

"Things do fluctuate but we haven't seen such low numbers since the mid 1980s, when funding for schools was given on a basis that wasn't about funding per pupil."

An independent education committee is seeking the public's ideas on how to progress with this situation before the end of September. Comments should be sent to Herefordshire Council's Education Office, Blackfriars Street, Hereford.