GOVERNORS at Abergavenny's Harold Road Junior School, are blocking a bid by their feeder infant school to become Church In Wales voluntary aided.

Park Street Infants is one of two Abergavenny infant schools threatened with closure by Monmouthshire county council.

A final decision on their plans is expected from Assembly Education Min-ister Jane Davidson "within a month or so," according to her spokesman. To avoid closure, governors at Park Street Infants School, want it to become a church aided school.

But they have now had a response from governors at Harold Road School, with chairman Karen Waters saying: "We believe that this proposal is part of a last-ditch strategy to retain an infants school on the Park Street site, rather than the consequence of a genuine long-term demand from parents in the area for a church infants school.

Parents did not express the desire for another church school in Abergaven-ny at any time during the strategic review consultation in 2002. "Such a demand did not form part of the response to the consultation by Park Street or Harold Road governing bodies."

Park Street is currently a feeder school for Harold Road - sharing the same catchment area - but if it became a church school, this would no longer be the case. Mrs Waters said this meant some pupils of the new Christchurch Infants School might not be eligible for admission to Harold Road Junior school.

Parent governor Justine Wheatley, co-author of Harold Road's response, added: "It is incorrect to say there are no voluntary aided schools in North Monmouthshire and parents who wish to educate their children in a faith school have a number of possible opportunities.

"Our Lady and St Michael's School, a voluntary aided Catholic school, accepts a substantial number of children of the Anglican faith.

"Llanfair Kilgeddin village school is applying for voluntary aided status and Raglan and Llantilio Pertholey primary schools are voluntary controlled Church in Wales schools.

"Until last year Llanellen school was also a Church in Wales primary school. However, it is perhaps significant that this school closed because of a lack of demand for places."