A VILLAGE green previously earmarked for a controversial academy is to be investigated over claims it is toxic and unsafe for development.

Plans for the 20:20 Discovery Academy, at Springfield, Adderley Green, were rejected by the council last week after more than 1,000 objections from campaigners.

But residents and councillors fear officials will bid again for the same site, which they believe is contaminated after previous use as a landfill.

Councillors on the children and young people's overview and scrutiny committee voted unanimously for an investigation into the chemical suitability of the site for future developments.

They also voted to endorse the Mitchell High School site as its preference for any future plans for an academy, prompting applause from residents at yesterday's meeting.

And the committee voted for significant public consultation on all future decisions on developments after councillors raised concerns over public involvement in the original plans.

Speaking at the meeting, campaigner Ian Jenkins said a toxicology expert had privately flagged up dangerous levels of chemicals at the site after studying toxicology documents submitted with the original application.

Mr Jenkins said: "The land is contaminated. If developments begin, toxic pollutants will be released and people in the area will be open to the contamination.

"From a tactical point of view I should keep this to myself, but I'm raising it now because it's so important.

Committee member and ward councillor Denver Tolley, pictured, said: "The academy is for 1,200 pupils, it's a lot of bodies. It strikes me as being rather impersonal and not the community school that local people want.

"Where children go to school is a matter of parental choice, and I don't think parents will want to send their children out of their community to a different area.

"As far as I'm concerned there is no support in the community for development at this site."

Councillor Ann James, vice-chair of the committee, said: "Cancer levels are increasing in this city, but none of us ask why.

"We all know the city was just slag heaps in years gone by and a lot of land is contaminated from the mines. People from other areas are coming in and buying houses that I wouldn't touch with a barge pole.

"It is safer to use the old sites rather than looking at new ones."

Resident Joyce Buckley-Parker, aged 80, from Ashridge Grove, told the committee that she thought the plans were "outrageous".

She said: "If they build here they will take away a little piece of heaven, a piece of heaven that is so rare in Stoke-on-Trent.

"Why do they want to take this away from us? We are not nasty people, we are ordinary citizens."

Senior officer Ged Rowney said he was concerned about the information and hoped it was not being used as a scare tactic.