Schools plan a step too far claim march parents

FAMILIES have staged a protest walk in their battle to stop plans for an academy.

Residents, school governors, ward councillors and parents were out in force yesterday to march from Park Hall golf course to the gates of Mitchell Business and Enterprise College in Bucknall.

TOO FAR: Protestors march past a danger point at the junction of Dividy Road before The Wagon And Horses Pub on the proposed route. Pictures: Mark Scott

It was the latest stage of a campaign to get 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 either be built 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 separate academy in Fenton as part of the plans.

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

Margaret Lowe, chairman of the Community School Action Group, organised the march to highlight the distance children would have to walk to the proposed academy – a route of more than two miles.

The 53-year-old, from Bentilee, said: "I organised it because I feel the council aren't listening to us.

"Mitchell and Edensor are too far apart – we want Mitchell and Berry Hill together.

"We don't want them to take Park Hall because it's green belt land which is used by lots of people for recreational purposes. Springfields is even further away.

"If the children had to walk up here they would have to start out very early or rely on parents to give them lifts, which will lead to a big increase in traffic."

Graham Wallace, from Bucknall, is a governor at Berry Hill.

The 70-year-old said: "If they close the high schools what will we have left in the Abbey Hulton and Bucknall area?

"We've got several primary schools but no secondary schools. Most of the kids go to Mitchell, like mine did, or Berry Hill. If this goes ahead there will be nothing left. It's crazy."

Stoke-on-Trent City councillors for Berryhill and Hanley East Rita Dale, Adrian Knapper and John Davis, Bentilee and Townsend councillor Steve Batkin and Mark Fisher MP turned out to show their support for the protest.

Mr Knapper said: "People want a school in the heart of the community, and Park Hall and Springfields are totally out on a limb."