Legal challenge by parent governor over Soho school merger plans

A legal challenge has been launched against Soho Parish primary school after a parent governor was allegedly kicked out of a key meeting.

Peter Couch has said he was wrongly excluded from a Soho Parish meeting at which potential merger plans were discussed.

Couch has requested a judicial review into the conduct, claiming the school “acted entirely outside their legal authority”. Soho Parish declined to comment.

The last surviving school in the Westminster neighbourhood, Soho Parish looked like it may have been moving to Fitzrovia under draft plans to merge with All Souls. Leaked documents revealed the proposal was due to concerns about falling pupil rolls, which are posing serious financial challenges for Soho Parish in particular.

The plans however were stopped in their tracks after governors at All Souls voted not to continue the conversation, despite Soho Parish opting to proceed.

On 3 June John Ong, chair of governors at Soho Parish, wrote to parents and carers: “While the option of amalgamation is no longer under consideration, the need for something significant to happen remains. Our falling roll means that our revenue reserves deficit continues to grow, and we now have a budget shortfall of over £300,000 each year.”

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) now understands Couch, an elected parent governor at Soho Parish, has requested a judicial review be launched into the school’s conduct.

Specifically, he is asking the High Court to assess a decision to exclude him from an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on 1 June, when governors voted to continue discussions with All Souls.

In his claim, seen by the LDRS, Couch outlines three grounds. The first relates to him allegedly being “forcibly” ejected from the EGM.

The claim reads: “A school governing body has no statutory power to arbitrarily bar a sitting governor from participating in corporate governance to manipulate a constitutional vote. The exclusion of the Claimant [Couch] completely invalidates the resolutions passed.”

Couch also argues a planned public consultation, which was not launched due to All Souls canning the proposal, was “pre-determined”.

“A lawful public consultation requires proposals to be at a formative stage, with accurate information provided for intelligent consideration.

“The First Defendant [Soho Parish] violated these principles by presenting a manufactured financial panic — conflating a manageable £21k operational deficit with an £877k historical legacy structure. The draft paper completely locked in the headteacher and transition dates before the consultation even launched, proving absolute predetermination.”

The third is what Couch states was “irrationality” on the school’s behalf, arguing that Soho Parish was voting through “a sweeping structural closure and amalgamation plan” without approval from All Souls.

Couch told the LDRS: “I pursued this High Court judicial review because I believe the governing body of Soho Parish CE Primary School acted entirely outside their legal authority on 1 June 2026. They forcibly kicked me out — an elected Parent Governor — from a vital meeting to shut down debate and rushed a vote to launch a consultation to close our school based on questionable data.

“While the board panicked parents with claims of an unmanageable financial crisis, our investigation proved the school’s actual in-year deficit is a stable £21,000. They conflated this with a £877,000 historical debt to scare people and force a closure.”

Couch added the process behind the proposed amalgamation “was a sham from the start”.

“We have the paper trail proving the final outcome was completely predetermined before the public consultation even opened,” he claimed.

“Their own draft document pre-appointed the new headteacher and locked in exact moving dates before anyone had a chance to object. To make matters worse, they rushed the move to merge our school without even securing a legally binding agreement with the partner school — whose board has now voted against the merger anyway. It is a total administrative collapse.

“I have applied for an urgent court injunction to stop them from taking any further unlawful steps while the High Court reviews the governing body’s conduct.”

The LDRS understands Mr Justice Mould has outlined a timeline requiring Soho Parish to respond to an application for interim relief by 4pm on 15 June.

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