'We'll battle on in school site fight'

FAMILIES opposed to building an academy on green land face another two-month wait to find out which site will finally be picked for the new school.

The 20:20 Discovery Academy is due to replace Mitchell Business and Enterprise College, in Bucknall, and Edensor Technology College, in Longton, but has been dogged by controversy ever since it was first proposed.

In December, Stoke-on-Trent City Council's development management committee threw out an outline planning application to build the school at Springfield, off Anchor Road, Adderley Green.

Now officers are returning to some of the sites they previously rejected in order to gather evidence for a new planning application.

The council's Building Schools for the Future (BSF) team still favours the Adderley Green site and could submit a revised plan for it. But no final decision will be made on which location to go for until after the latest feasibility work.

A council spokesman said this wasn't likely to be completed before the end of March.

The other locations being re-examined are Mossfield Road, land surrounding the Willfield Centre, and the gasometer site by Park Hall Country Park.

But they don't include the current site of Mitchell Business and Enterprise College, which families in Bentilee and Bucknall want to see used for a new school.

They have been calling for Mitchell to merge with Berry Hill High instead, so pupils don't have to travel out of the area to get to school.

Today, the Community School Action Group vowed to continue campaigning for the Mitchell alternative. Meanwhile, the Springfield Action Group, set up by residents in Adderley Green, has also warned it will fight any attempt to resurrect the plans for Springfield.

Families claim developing this land would rob the Adderley Green area of public open space, lead to pupils walking along dangerous roads to get to school, and create traffic chaos.

Margaret Lowe, chairman of the Community School Action Group, said: "I don't see how they can resolve some of the issues brought up by both action groups at the last planning meeting.

"The pavements in Anchor Road are too narrow and they have already said they can't do anything about that."

At December's committee meeting, it emerged one section of this road had no pavement at all. On the other side, the pavement was just 3ft wide.

But planners said they would introduce road layout improvements if the school building went ahead there.

The 20:20 Discovery Academy is the last piece of the jigsaw for the city's BSF programme. Planning applications have already been approved for a series of other academies and special school buildings.

Last week, The Sentinel reported how the council has finally secured the £250 million needed to carry out the whole scheme.

The final decision on the site for the academy replacing Mitchell and Edensor rests with the local authority.

But schools minister Vernon Coaker will be visiting the city shortly to view the different site options. It comes after MPs Mark Fisher and Rob Flello raised concerns with him about the proposals.