PRIMARY schools in Brixham may face drastic measures in a bid to solve the problem of dwindling pupil numbers.

The five primary schools in the port are under-subscribed by 16 per cent.

This number is forecast to rise to 20 per cent over the next four years.

Torbay Council is holding a meeting with staff, governors, town and ward councillors and other stakeholders on July 15 to look at the situation — and has not ruled out closing one of the schools.

A spokesman said: "Empty places are expensive to maintain and spare accommodation can often be put to better use.

"Therefore Torbay Council is reviewing primary school provision and exploring opportunities to adjust the supply of places and make improvements to primary schools."

Headteachers say they are worried about declining pupils as it has led to less funding.

Ken Kies, head teacher of Eden Park, said: "Something needs to be done because we've got a situation where there are surplus places in the schools across Brixham and clearly that doesn't make financial sense.

"I'm worried about our school because we are struggling with funding because of these surplus places.

"We are supposed to take 60 admissions each year, but our Year 4 group only has 37 pupils and that's tracked through the school.

"We are always scrimping and saving and we have to make the best we can with the limited financial restraints we've got."

Matt Tookey, headteacher at St Margaret Clitherow Catholic school, described it as a 'very worrying situation'.

"At the moment, there simply are just not enough pupils to go round," he said.

"We are under-subscribed, not a lot, but I think that applies to most schools in Brixham.

"Everyone is worried. You don't want to have a negative impact on your school or staff morale, which there could be if not handled sensitively. Our funding is based on pupil numbers — we get a lump sum per pupil basically — and if you aren't full that means you're not getting the maximum funding you could get, so that's an issue for us."

Brixham town councillor and Eden Park governor, Peter Killick, said the two obvious solutions would be to either close a school or reduce the number of teachers.

"Closing a school would be dynamite. It's a horrible thing to do," he said.

"We don't want to have a reduction in staff if we can help it either. There would be a huge redundancy bill to pay so it's not easy to do anyway."

Brixham ward councillor Mike Morey said he could not pre-empt the solution, but insisted the situation must not be allowed to continue because it affects schools' budgets.

A Torbay Council spokesman said the public will be consulted before any decisions are made.

He added: "We are thoroughly exploring our options to positively tackle a fall in subscriptions, and have successfully dealt with surplus places in a number of projects where the education provision has been improved for the better.

"Examples include the newly-built school at Kings Ash Primary to replace two schools in poor condition, and a reduction in the size of Ellacombe, Watcombe and Curledge Street where capital investment is replacing poor accommodation."