A 30-strong action group has been formed to fight the proposed closure of Kettlewell and Arncliffe primary schools.

The second public consultation into the possible closure went ahead on Monday, with strong arguments being put to education bosses at North Yorkshire County Council to keep the schools open.

From Monday, Arncliffe School will only have four children on roll, with 28 being educated in Kettlewell.

Education bosses have stated it is too costly to maintain the schools with the current number of children and they predict a further drop in numbers over the next few years.

They suggest closing Arncliffe and Kettlewell and either creating a single school at Grassington or, their preferred option, creating one school for the area covering Arncliffe, Kettlewell, Threshfield and Grassington, based on two sites in Threshfield and Grassington.

Either option would see the closure of the two smaller schools and a potential 34-mile round trip by bus or school taxi for children as young as four who live at the top of the Dale.

Carolyn Bird, assistant director of strategic services, told the meeting the average cost of educating a child was £3,342, but at Arncliffe and Kettlewell it was £10,196 and £5,262 respectively.

She said the figures were forecast to get even worse over the next few years, with numbers at Kettlewell School expected to drop to 15 children by 2014/15.

County council representatives were unaware Arncliffe School was due to lose three children this week, meaning numbers will drop to just four on Monday. There are plans to transfer the remaining children to Kettlewell School for the winter period.

At a packed public consultation in Arncliffe School on Monday, parents raised concerns about the logistics of transporting young children to school, as well as the risk of communities dying because young people would not want to stay when there was no school nearby.

Local vicar, the Rev Peter Yorkstone, said he was “angry to his stomach” about the geographical and historical losses.

He also questioned how much would be saved from closing both schools and whether that money would remain within Upper Wharfedale.

He was told there would be a possible saving of £80,000 or £90,000 which would be filtered into the dedicated school grant for North Yorkshire.

Parent Stephen Pope asked why the county council was thinking about closing Kettlewell School when it was still viable and had recently received an outstanding Ofsted report. He said that joining Arncliffe and Kettlewell would make it even more viable.

“Can you guarantee that if this programme happens that my children will get taught at a better quality than they get now and if it is going to be maintained?” he asked.

Other parents said the education authority had a duty to ensure children’s travel to school was safe, and expecting young children to travel 34 miles was not right given the state of the roads and the poor winter maintenance.

Ms Bird said there were variations to the options put forward, one of which was retaining Kettlewell School, and all the feedback and ideas put forward by the parents would be looked at.

She said that, because of suggestions from parents, the consultation period was going to be extended to December 17. The county council would consider the responses by February and make a decision in May.

In the meantime, a steering group of around 30 people has been set up to address the issues raised and demand transparent information in the key areas that have led the county council to publish their proposals.