Controversial plans to build a school in a tiny south Shropshire village have split the community, with some residents behind the scheme and others deeply opposed.
About 100 people turned out last night to quiz council bosses over the plans for a new primary school in Ashford Carbonel, near Ludlow.
And there were so many people attending the question and answer session at the village hall that the event had to be held outside to give all those who had assembled an opportunity to hear the discussion.
Residents were told that council bosses are hoping to start building the primary school next summer, with the hope that it will be open by 2010.
Norrie Porter, premises and planning manager for Shropshire County Council, said the scheme was currently going through a consultation period.
But some angry villagers hit out at the plan.
They protested that they had not been given information about the location for the new school, which is designed to cater for up to 90 children from both Ashford and Caynham.
Mr Porter added that two more stages of consultation were yet to take place, and it was hoped that a planning application would be submitted by Christmas.
He said he understood the concerns of the school consultation group, which claimed it was not informed of the proposal.
But he said: “We prepared a letter to parents, governors and members of staff and we assumed the parents and governors who live in the community would pass that information on.”
Gill Hall, chairman of governors at Ashford Carbonel, urged villagers to look at the long-term implications.
She said: “A lot of emphasis has been placed on the children in Caynham.
“This school is not for the children who are here at this time; it is for the children of the future.”
Protesters said it would be better to build the school in Caynham because it is demographically a younger village.
By Sophie Bignall
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