CAMPAIGNERS fighting to save a closure-threatened Cwmbran school have been invited to a private meeting with a council education chief.

Torfaen director of education Mike de Val was so impressed by alternative proposals from parents fighting for Brookfield primary school that he wants to discuss their ideas further.

The council has earmarked Brookfield for closure along with Pentwyn and Ponthir primaries to combat a surplus of places in the primary sector.

But at a public consultation meeting, parents put forward their own proposals with detailed plans and costings.

Campaign group leader Paul Underwood said Brookfield can be kept open and expanded to take pupils from Oakfield primary school, at a cost of just £580,000.

Mr Underwood said: "Mr de Val was very much interested in our proposals and has asked us to meet him on April 6 to discuss them further. We have worked out that the two schools can be amalgamated at limited cost, and it would cut the number of surplus places by even more."

The group spent more than £5,000 of campaign money, most of it raised through fundraising events, on consultants and architects to draw up their plans for the future of Brookfield.

They are hoping to arrange a meeting with parents and staff of Oakfield school to explain their proposals and have written to all 44 Torfaen councillors.

Mr Underwood said: "Our proposal not only gets rid of Brookfield's surplus places but Oakfield's as well. The Brookfield school site can offer a safe, secure place for Oakfield pupils and all their teachers can come as well."

Assistant director of education for Torfaen council David Powell said the department would give the group's alternative plans "the most careful consideration".

Councillors will vote in May on whether to close the three schools.