Parents have “voted with their feet” over the future of a small rural school, leading councillors have said, ahead of approving its closure.

North Yorkshire Council’s executive expressed dismay over the demise of St Hilda’s Ampleforth Church of England Primary School, but said they had been left with no option but to cease maintaining it from next month due to it consistently attracting low numbers of pupils.

Letters of objection from parents, grandparents and the manager of a nursery, had been presented to the council’s leading members arguing the school had a viable future, with one stating with one stating its closure would “rip the heart out of the village community”.

The appeals followed the Conservative-led authority’s Liberal Democrats calling for a moratorium on school closures until the completion of the first North Yorkshire-wide Local Plan, saying forthcoming housing developments could see schools facing dwindling rolls become viable again.

Last autumn, the authority’s children’s scrutiny committee heard the succession of rural school closures in the county was “only likely to get worse” with a looming oversupply of places.

Nevertheless, the authority’s executive member for education, Councillor Annabel Wilkinson, said it had been the school’s governing body which had brought forward a proposal to consult over its closure due to low pupil numbers, which had led to financial pressures.

She said the school had a roll of fewer than 37 pupils for the last 15 years and it currently had 13 pupils, having seen a consistently low intake in recent years, despite there being 94 children who could attend in its catchment area.

The meeting heard the village was unusual in having another primary school, St Benedict’s, which had 55 pupils. She said low pupil numbers made it challenging for schools to maintain teaching standards and learning opportunities.

Coun Wilkinson said village schools were an important part of communities and it was “heartbreaking and disappointing when a decision to close a school is made”.

She said: “North Yorkshire have a responsibility to look at the breadth and quality of education for every child and ensure they have the best school experience.”

After hearing St Hilda’s had a pupil capacity of 49, executive member Councillor Michael Harrison said: “The infrastructure is there, but for whatever reason parents are not sending their children there, so they’ve voted with their feet.”

Executive member for housing, Councillor Simon Myers, said although about 30 houses had been built in the village over the last decade the number of schoolchildren had decreased.

He said: “So it isn’t just building housing that is the solution to the viability of schools, it’s building the right housing and having the right jobs and so on.”

The authority’s executive member for children’s services, Councillor Janet Sanderson added proposals put forward to protect small rural schools would require a change in legislation, leaving the authority with no alternative but to press ahead with the school’s closure.