Councillors considering plans for a new Stoke-on-Trent high school opposed by hundreds of residents will visit the site before making their decision.

More than 430 people have signed a petition against proposals to build the school on open land in Meir.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council has also received 116 objections to the plans for the new Florence MacWilliams Academy on land west of Weston Road. Concerns include traffic, air pollution and the impact on wildlife as well as loss of land currently used by dog walkers and children playing football.

Broadway resident Deborah Pazir said: "Please look more in into this location. You will see that it is simply not suitable for a huge academy.

"Possibly sports facilities could be put on the old Meir Club site and accessed via Weston Road as people would be coming and going at different times. The school could be extensions at Ormiston Academy and use the former Edensor site or other brown sites in Longton."

Nearly 500 people have signed a petition against proposals to build a new school in Meir (LDRS).

John Cooke of Westsprink Crescent said: "Weston Woods will have little protection if thousands more people will be using them to get to the new school, to compensate for the loss of their usual dog walking site on the adjacent fields or for evening and weekend activities on the proposed pitches. The bluebells will be trampled, litter and dog mess will increase exponentially, wildlife will be disturbed.

"Cars will be using the estate to drop off their children and pick them up because it is a better alternative than sitting in the already ridiculous amount of traffic on Weston Road. Of course, this will disrupt residents.

"So many people do not want this school. Why do you want to take away so much of our green space and make our lives miserable?"

Four people have written in support of the plans however. If approved a three-storey building will be constructed, as well as sports pitches, to provide 1,150 school places.

The new school would provide over 1,000 places for students if the proposals are given the green light (Florence MacWilliams Academy).

Julie Owers of Beckett Avenue said the new school was "just what the area needs," She added: "The children will benefit from this and also the community."

James Wildman of Woodland Road, Rode Heath, said: "Whilst recognising there are challenges to overcome I fully support this development. As a committee member of the local football club we are fully aware of a lack of sports facilities and organised sport in the local area.

"The installation of four MUGA (multi use games area) courts, a full size 3G and four youth football pitches, along with athletics facilities and cricket pitch will open up huge opportunities for local people to engage and take part in organised activities to improve their physical and mental wellbeing. We regularly receive requests from local people about football for children aged 5-16, something that currently we are unable to offer and for which they would need to travel out of the area.

"Having additional sports pitches in the local area would make it far more accessible for local people and for a local junior football club to be established. The school itself would also open up job opportunities for local people as well as bringing much needed investment to the local area."

Councillors have agreed to visit the site before they make their decision on whether or not the school can be built (LDRS).

The council's planning committee is set to determine the plans. On Wednesday members voted to visit the site before they make their decision, on a date to be arranged once the application has been scheduled for a future planning committee meeting.

A report to Wednesday's meeting said: "Site visits are not routinely undertaken by Planning Committee but there are exceptional circumstances whereby it may be prudent for members to visit the site directly. In this case officers consider it appropriate for members to do so to ensure that the site and its context is collectively understood.

"The proposal is for a major redevelopment of the application site. It raises a number of material planning considerations and officers consider that it would be helpful if members had the opportunity to visit the site prior to the assessment of the application."

READ MORE: Plans for brand-new flats and retail units on former school site in Stoke-on-Trent 

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