Parent power won the day when ruling Cabinet councillors, lobbied by demonstrators, finally decided that Leigh’s Gilded Hollins Primary should be removed from the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) review to stay open.

But the same meeting was condemned after agreeing that three borough high schools – Golborne, Lowton and Atherton Hesketh Fletcher – plus Lowton Junior and Infants, now enter the formal consultation stage for closure / redesignation in 2011.

Under BSF their pupils will go to a new 1500-pupil super school on the site of Lowton Civic Hall.

Earlier this month the Metro won £80m funding for the first phase – one of just six out of more than 40 councils nationwide to be successful in the private finance initiative bid.

Cabinet member for Children and Young People Coun Susan Loudon (Labour) said that the Metro had been swayed by the sheer weight of community support for saving Gilded Hollins, despite it being described as “unsuitable for the delivery of the modern curriculum.” But she warned this must now continue to translate into parents choosing the school for their youngsters in the future.

But Save Our Schools campaign spokesman Coun Barry Fagan (Community Action Party) said that the Gilded Hollins U-turn showed what influence parents could have if they stuck together.

And he said: “We haven’t given up the fight for the others schools either – this is just the beginning.”