CAMPAIGNERS will go to the High Court on Friday in a bid to save their school from closure.
The legal showdown with Liverpool council is the culmination of a long-running battle by parents and community members fighting to stop the axe falling on Croxteth comprehensive school.
The opponents have taken the drastic step of hiring a firm of solicitors in a last-gasp bid to save the school which the local authority has concluded must close next year.
Irwin Mitchell Solicitors will on Friday ask a judge to grant a Judicial Review in the case. If the legal bid – launched on behalf of a parent – is successful, the court could overturn Liverpool council’s decision to shut down the school.
The case is among the first to be heard at the new regional Administrative Court – allowing cases previously heard in London to be dealt with in Liverpool, before a judge sitting within Liverpool Crown Court.
Lawyers will argue during the case – expected to be dealt with in a day – that the decision should be overturned because the council "failed to follow government guidance on school closure proposals, rejected serious alternatives to the closure plan, and has discriminated against non-Catholics".
The move was made as part of a £485m reorganisation of the city’s high schools on the grounds that dwindling numbers meant the Croxteth and Norris Green area could not justify retaining three high schools.
