Once again Herefordshire Council has been embarrassed by the actions of a few officers who have acted with no consideration of the consequences for the lives they are affecting. Following the damming findings of auditors into the IT department at Herefordshire Council it is the Education officers who are now under fire. The wideranging proposals which they put forward for the future provision of education in the county would have seen 37 schools merged or closed, including eight in the JKHS catchment area. These were recalled by the Council on Monday afternoon following intense pressure from Councillors, Heads, Governors and parents. Many schools had planned protest meetings, the pupils at Kings Capel School had even written their own protest song which they performed for MP Paul Keetch on Monday. Over 80 parents, grandparents and members of the Roman Catholic St Joseph's school community gathered there last Friday evening to find out how they could respond to the Local Authority's proposal to close their school. There was meeting at Weston under Penyard which was attended about 200 members of the community as well as Jesse Norman and Sarah Carr and Dr Ian Terry from the Herefordshire Diocese. The decision to withdraw the review was welcomed by Llangrove School. Headteacher Andrew Best said:?"It is only right and fair that all schools and communities are involved in detailed discussions before the re-drafting of proposals." While many people agree that a review of education provision in the county is essential, the proposals were considered by many to be ill thought out and with little or no factual data to back up the suggestions.