A PEOPLE power protest took to the streets of Ramsbottom as parents and children made a noisy bid to save St Paul's School.

Bury Metro commissioned a review of primary schools and it made three proposals for the Ramsbottom schools.

The options are: close St Paul's and make adequate provision for existing pupils at St Andrews; close both schools and build a new one on St Andrew's site and maintain the status quo.

A Save Our Local Schools Focus Group has been set up by parents of pupils at St Paul's in a bid to keep the historic school open.

Through hail and rain, the parents battled on Saturday to stage an all day protest in the memorial gardens surrounding St Paul's Church with placards made by the children and singing the school song.

Group member Andrew Todd said: "The school song is Three Wheels On My Wagon, but we changed some of the works to say the DfE is after me.

"We manned the protest on a shift system having about 40 people out all of the time. We also went down to the station and handed out leaflets to the passengers on the train.

"The school also held an open day at the same time when parents of prospective pupils were invited to look round the school. There was also a collage of photographs of the pupils' achievements because the school has a long history dating back to 1968.

"We had support from great-grandmothers because this school has been an education place for four or five generations of the same family."

The group plans to turn out in force on Tuesday evening at the Christ Church Centre in Ramsbottom when a special meeting of Ramsbottom and Tottington area board will discuss the proposals.