The object of this, the last of the Adjournment debates today, is to record the facts regarding the long-standing dispute between the East Riding Local Education Authority and the Governors of Beverley Grammar School and to ask my hon. Friend some questions.

This dispute has lasted for 10 years, during which time the position of the grammar school has been continually and deliberately eroded. It was only the recent and direct intervention of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Science, who will, I believe, be remembered as one of the great Ministers of Education of our day, that has enabled the position to be restored and the rights of parents to be vindicated.

The story starts right back in 1963, when public anxiety was expressed about the allocation of grammar school places to Beverley children, the lack of attention paid to parental wishes and the whole question of zoning. I had an Adjournment debate on these matters in July 1964. The then chief education officer of the East Riding, commenting on letters which appeared in the Press at that time, remarked that correspondents were erroneous, stupid, misinformed and educationally subnormal. These remarks set the tone for the subsequent relations between the parents and the governors on the one side and the LEA on the other.

In 1965 the LEA published its proposals for the reorganisation of secondary education in the East Riding. These proposed that the grammar school should become a second comprehensive school alongside Longcroft School. On this occasion the chief education officer remarked that, if the grammar school governors did not co-operate, either undesirable pressure would have to be brought upon them or other solutions, perhaps in the long run less suitable to them, would have to be sought.

I should point out that the grammar school is a voluntary aided school and its status cannot be changed without the governors' agreement. However, in order to effect a compromise which would preserve the high standard of this school, which incidentally is the third oldest grammar school in England and was founded in 700 A.D. by St. John of Beverley, the governors suggested that it should become a sixth form college and asked for consultation and discussions with the LEA. That was refused, in spite of the fact that Government Circular No. 10/65 said that it should take place.

At that time the chairman of the LEA stated that when proposals were definite parents would be informed fully and authoritatively". In other words, there was to be no consultation; the parents were merely to be informed when the LEA had decided what should be done.

That led to a well-attended and indignant public meeting in 1966. The matter was finally referred to the then Secretary of State, who decided in the following year that a sixth-form college was unsuitable as there would not be enough potential sixth formers to make it worth while. The governors accepted that decision, and decided to carry on as a maintained grammar school.

The next stage in this saga was a request to the LEA for more secondary school places so as to make adequate preparations for the raising of the school leaving age. It asked for 300 places, all at Longcroft School. At the same time it cut the catchment area of the grammar school, removing the well-populated areas of Willerby, Anlaby and Kirk Ella, all in my constituency, and refused repeated requests to meet the governors to discuss the whole question.

In 1971 my right hon. Friend the present Secretary of State approved 350 secondary school places, but allocated 290 of them to Longcroft and 60 to the grammar school. She also decided that Longcroft should become a fully comprehensive school with a six form.

At about that time I presented a petition to my right hon. Friend on behalf of the grammar school. That petition contained about 7,000 signatures, gathered in two weeks. It apparently had little effect on the LEA, and the catchment area was again cut by the LEA, Leven and Bransbarton being removed in 1970 and Market Weighton being removed in 1972.

In 1973 my right hon. Friend approved Cottingham's becoming a fully comprehensive school, a proposal which I supported. But I again pointed out to the Department, as I had on many occasions, the inevitable consequences of that decision on the future intake to the grammar school. For two years I had been urging the Department to take action over the grammar school's catchment area, which was being reduced year by year, but there was little result, except for a growing overcrowding at Longcroft School and some spare places at the grammar school.

However, the matter came to a head this year, when the normal intake of 60 at the beginning of the school year in September was reduced to seven out of 55 who sat for the examination in Beverley and one out of 24 in Cottingham, a total of eight instead of the normal 60. All other areas of the rest of my constituency and adjacent constituencies, except the towns of Beverley and Cottingham, had been excluded by the LEA.

As I had had a vast correspondence with the Department for years, I felt that there was now no alternative but to approach my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State direct. She immediately took action. Having examined the position, she directed that the selection examination be retaken not only by those who had sat the examination in Beverley and Cottingham but also by boys of parents who had applied throughout the whole area, covering not only my constituency but the constituencies of my right hon. Friend the Member for Bridlington (Mr. Wood), whom I am glad to see here this afternoon, and my hon. Friend the Member for Howden (Sir P. Bryan). Thus the parents' rights under the law, which had been continuously whittled away by the LEA, were restored and safeguarded.

Unfortunately, that came very late in the day. I ask my hon. Friend to ensure that the tests are taken as soon as possible, that the normal and acceptable standards will be required, and that parents will receive adequate notification of their rights, as only the LEA has access to the addresses of parents of boys now at primary school of the right age to sit the examination. In this respect, will he bear in mind that the East Riding LEA goes out of existence at the end of March next year, when the new Humberside County Council takes over? It has already procrastinated for so long that at least one term's intake, and possibly two, for the grammar school have been lost. It may well intend to continue the process of procrastination until the last moment—namely, until it disappears at the end of March of next year.

It has been said that my right hon. Friend's decision will reintroduce selectivity. That has been said by some schoolteachers and it has been represented in the Press. Will my hon. Friend confirm that that is not so and that selection must remain in respect of Beverley Grammar School? That does not necessarily mean the continuation of what is known as the 11-plus examination. That is the existing method of selection. The governors have suggested many other methods of selection to the LEA. The LEA has so far turned down those suggestions and has refused to discuss the matter with the governors.

I regret to say that there has been a certain amount of party political bickering on this matter in my constituency. That is regrettable. It casts doubt on the existing comprehensive schools being able to carry on alongside the grammar school. I believe that the comprehensive schools in my constituency, with possibly one exception, are excellent. I do not believe that they would suffer from a grammar intake provided that it was spread over a large area. That, of course, is my right hon. Friend's intention.

I ask my hon. Friend to confirm that, until and unless the law is altered, the grammar school will continue, if the governors so decide, and that selectivity will also continue. There are a number of different methods of selection which can be decided by agreement between the governors and the local education authority. This debate is in no way critical of comprehensive schools. I believe that such schools have an important part to play in our educational system, and certainly in my constituency. This matter illustrates only too clearly how the Secretary of State's intervention was required to preserve the rights of parents and their children, which the LEA has been resisting until the last moment.

I express my thanks, and the thanks of many of my constituents, to the Secretary of State. I remind my hon. Friend that time is now very short for my right hon. Friend's directive to be made effective. I hope that my hon. Friend will do all that he can to ensure that the directive is put into effect so that Beverley Grammar School will have its normal intake of boys in the coming January term.