A primary school will close by the end of this year.

The office of the schools adjudicator has confirmed that St Bartholomew’s Church of England Primary School in Ann Street, Brighton, will no longer operate after December 31.

The closure was confirmed after Brighton and Hove City Council's decision to close the school was objected to by the community earlier this year.

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The closure will still go ahead however the council’s proposed closure date, which was originally August 31,has now been pushed back to allow the school community more time to transition.

A spokesman for the council said: "It has been a very difficult decision to close St Bartholomew’s Primary School.

"However, with the city’s primary schools in a crisis situation, action to reduce the number of the excess places and the structural underfunding this creates is needed to secure the long-term future of the city’s schools.

"We acknowledge that this has been a painful process for children, families and staff at the school, and welcome that there is now a confirmed timeline in place.

"We will continue to work closely with the school to support pupils to make sure the moves to new schools are as positive as possible for them and their families."

The office of the schools adjudicator report said that although the council appeared to fail to take action "more promptly" over the years regarding school capacity, it was clear that the need to close the school is a "rational response".

A section of the report read: "We accept that the council does have an urgent need to address the surplus capacity in the primary schools in the city on financial grounds, however we cannot but consider that this urgency is at least in part as a result of what appears to have been inaction on its own part in recent years as this problem was developing– both in failing to take action more promptly to address the need to reduce the capacity in schools and to ensure that schools were taking management action to remain within their allocated budgets.

"We do not consider that this urgency should be a reason for making decisions which worsen any adverse impact on very young children, some of whom are known to have multiple vulnerabilities.

"We also accept that the proposal to close the school is based on a rational response to the demographics of pupil numbers across the city and that there is a demonstrable need to reduce primary school places in the planning area designated by the council in which the school is situated which exists in the medium term at least.

"However, we regret that the council does not at least make an attempt to forecast the need for places at individual schools as the absence of such data can only make for a lack of clarity concerning matters such as a proposal to close a school."