HAMPSHIRE'S smallest school has been saved - but the decision could put the future of other schools at risk, an education boss has warned.

In an extraordinary attack, Conservative Michael Cartwright said the U-turn by the county's ruling Cabinet on Ampfield Primary School last month "flew in the face of reason".

Cllr Cartwright was vice-chairman of the education policy review committee that originally earmarked the 108-year-old Church of England school for the axe.

He fully supported the late education chief Don Allen's decision to close the tiny village school, which has only 23 pupils, and yesterday, he told a Hampshire County Council meeting that leader Ken Thornber had caved in on emotional grounds.

"In my view, it was the result of emotional blackmail," he said. "This decision will make it very difficult to justify any closure of any other school in the future."

He added that, with 75 per cent surplus spaces at the school, it was costing about £9,000 per pupil to keep the building open - more than many independent, fee-paying schools.

"This flies in the face of reason. The decision should have been allowed to go to the adjudicator, I don't know why there was this interruption to the process," said Cllr Cartwright.

It was in October that the late Cllr Allen decided to close Ampfield Primary School as part of a shake-up brought about by falling pupil numbers. Objections were lodged, so the decision went to the schools organisation committee, made up of governors, councillors and church bodies.

They failed to reach a unanimous verdict, so it was pushed on to an independent adjudicator.

In an 11th-hour reprieve, Conservative Cllr Ken Thornber, leader of Hampshire County Council, stepped in to say new information had come to light which shed doubt on the original decision.

On March 7, the Cabinet formally overturned the decision - and voted to keep Ampfield open for good.

Labour councillor Mike Roberts told the policy and resources scrutiny committee yesterday: "It was a political U-turn of the most amazing proportions. It just beggared belief - where's the democracy in all this?"

Liberal Democrat Adrian Collett added: "I found it quite astonishing."

Campaigner and former Ampfield pupil Charlie Allen said: "We are very grateful that the county council called the decision back in. It was the right thing to do, and we are tremendously happy that this whole thing has come to an end."