The county council's executive agreed at a meeting yesterday morning to proceed to the next stage, which is to publish a statutory notice of closure of Lafford High School, Billinghay due to falling numbers of pupils.

There will be a further six-week consultation period before a final decision will be made by the Executive in July.

Officers explained that the school was not financially viable and will not be able to offer a suitable or sufficiently broad curriculum for the future in terms of staffing. They predicted that declining numbers will continue at the school and said the annual intake could easily drop below 20 when it is recommended that schools should have at least 120 new pupils each year.

The plan would be for a phased closure until the last pupils would leave in July 2010, with pupils moving to schools in Tattershall, Ruskington and Branston.

There had been several letters and a petition of 249 signatures calling to save the Lafford School.

Governors were keen to turn the school into a centre for special educational needs pupils, but chairman Derek Daniels admitted he knew that yesterday's decision was a foregone conclusion.