Go-ahead for £25m school

A £25 million academy with space for more than 1,000 students will be built in Shropshire after planners gave the scheme the thumbs-up.

The Abraham Darby Academy in Telford will include a community leisure centre, fitness suite, swimming pool, the relocation of Woodlands Primary School which will cater for 452 pupils, as well as accommodation for 1,100 secondary school students.

It is the first Sports and Learning Community that bosses at Telford & Wrekin Council have been given permission for, after almost two years of talking to residents and consulting on the future of the site in Ironbridge Road, Madeley.

Councillors on Telford & Wrekin Council's plans board unanimously approved the application at a meeting last night.

Today Councillor Stephen Burrell, cabinet member for children and young people, said: "The new Sports and Learning Community will both be an excellent educational facility for young people from Madeley, Woodside and Ironbridge and also provide sporting and health facilities for the local community."

During the public consultation, more than 200 residents signed a protest petition, claiming bulldozing the current building would have "serious negative implications for the local community".