A campaign group has been set up to oppose plans for a new £16 million technology college in Telford, which residents claim would be out of keeping with the rest of the area.

The Stop the Ercall 85 group has been set up in response to plans to rebuild Ercall Wood Technology College. An outline planning application has been registered with Telford & Wrekin Council.

The proposals include the construction of a new secondary school.

The plans would see the current building demolished after pupils and teachers move to the new building.

Telford & Wrekin Council said the sale of residential sites will help finance the scheme with the potential of 130 homes.

But a spokesman for Stop the Ercall 85, a group launched to fight the application, said: “We do not object to the redevelopment of the school but we do object to it taking place on greenland which sits at the back of people’s homes.

“The application is completely out of character with the area. A lot of the homes around here were built in the 1920s or 1930s.

“The council plans to sell the current playing fields for housing and build a fancy new school. They will then buy some derelict farmland and turn that into a playing field – swapping it for the playing field behind our homes. It’s not right for the area.”

Resident Lawrence Pritchard, of Holyhead Road, said: “As an 81-year-old who has lived here for 50 years in a house overlooking the playing field – the proposed development is my worst possible nightmare.”

A Telford & Wrekin Council spokesman said: “The proposal will benefit more than 5,000 children over a 25-year period and will result in a state of the art, energy efficient building.

“The rebuild of the existing school depends on the capital receipt from the playing field.”