FAMILIES will be staging a protest walk tomorrow in their battle to stop plans for an academy.

Residents, school governors and parents are expected to join the march, which will trace a route from Park Hall golf course to the gates of Mitchell Business and Enterprise College, in Bucknall.

It is the latest stage of a campaign calling on Stoke-on-Trent City Council to change a key part of its £250 million Building Schools for the Future programme.

The council wants to shut both Mitchell and Edensor Technology College, in Longton, and replace them with an academy, which will be built either near Park Hall golf course or a few hundred yards away at Springfields, in Adderley Green.

Berry Hill High will also close to make way for a different academy in Fenton as part of the reorganisation plans.

Residents have formed the Community School Action Group to campaign for Mitchell and Berry Hill to be replaced with a new community school, preferably on the Mitchell site.

The protest walk will start at 1pm from the golf course car park, off Hulme Lane.