CAMPAIGNERS are holding a public meeting to discuss their next move in a battle to stop two community schools being replaced with academies.

The Community School Action Group will be staging the event at Mitchell Business and Enterprise College, off Causeley Road, Bucknall, on Thursday at 7.30pm.

It comes just weeks after Stoke-on-Trent City Council's development management committee threw out an outline planning application to build one of the academies on green space by Anchor Road, Adderley Green.

This school was due to replace Mitchell and Longton's Edensor Technology College. Another academy planned for Fenton would replace Berry Hill High and St Peter's High, in Penkhull.

The action group has been campaigning for Berry Hill and Mitchell to be merged instead and for a new school to be built on the Mitchell site. Residents say this would keep secondary education in their community and prevent pupils having to travel further for lessons.

Group chairman Margaret Lowe is now urging families to attend the public meeting so they can voice their views and be brought up to speed on the latest developments in the campaign.

She said: "We have invited members of the city council and Serco to come and answer any queries or comments."