Bristol City Council's Labour-run cabinet has voted to press ahead with the closure of three small primary schools in spite of a torrent of opposition.

Schools chief Councillor Peter Hammond said Stockwood Green Primary, St Pius X Catholic Primary in Withywood and St George's Church of England Primary in the city centre had to shut as part of a citywide programme to improve education for children aged four to 11.

The vote was taken last night after members had listened to impassioned appeals from representatives of the three schools, opposition councillors and the National Union of Teachers.

It was immediately challenged by Conservative leader Richard Eddy, who said he would call in the decision for further scrutiny.

Representatives of the three schools said after the meeting that they were disappointed and frustrated that the cabinet had not listened to their arguments, but they all vowed to fight on.

Mr Hammond, cabinet councillor for cohesion and raising achievement, said it was with regret that he was proposing to shut the schools. He pledged that each proposal would be the subject of an individual consultation process before again being brought before the cabinet.

The closures are scheduled for between 2010 and 2013, once improvements have been made to other schools to which the pupils would move.

Mr Hammond said: "I accept the passion and commitment for individual schools demonstrated by parents, governors and staff. But the cabinet has to look not only at the individual schools but also at the overall strategic picture."

The closures were part of a review of all 110 primary sector schools that aimed to reduce surplus places, raise standards and improve schools. Bristol risked missing out on part of a £43-million government funding package if it did not complete the review, he added.

Dick North, of the National Union of Teachers, said the review, announced in May, was based on bogus arguments about the size of schools and about value for money. He said: "It is an absolute disgrace."

Mr Eddy told the meeting that the cabinet was "arbitrarily sacrificing three good and improving schools". Clare Gundry, head of St George's, put forward "an appeal from the heart" to the cabinet to save her school.

After the meeting, she said parents and staff were determined to battle on.

"No member of the cabinet has yet visited our school. When they do, they will realise the strength of feeling and will see why we feel we have to stay open," she said.

Mike Landen, chairman of governors at Stockwood Green, said: "Councillor Hammond appears to go to any lengths to close Stockwood Green school."

Later, he told the Bristol Evening Post: "I don't really feel the cabinet has looked at the evidence dispassionately."

Dr Mark Lloyd Davies, who is set to fight the Bristol South parliamentary seat for the Tories at the next election, spoke up in favour of keeping St Pius open. He said: "To close St Pius School against the wishes of the local community, the Roman Catholic Diocese and the majority of this council would be a betrayal of everything the school has achieved over recent years and send a message of hopelessness to all who have invested their time and talents in its future."

Following the decision, Sandy Bateman, a member of the senior management team at the Withywood school, said the school had worked hard to get out of special measures and increase pupil numbers and deserved to remain open.

Cabinet councillor Derek Pickup said all the closures regrettably had to be supported, because they were the "last piece of the jigsaw" that would secure government funding. He said: "We have to make a decision that will help all children in Bristol."