A MAJOR campaign was underway today to stop a new £10 million school from being built.

Residents say plans by St Wilfrid's High to build the multi-million pound school on the Feniscliffe playing fields site in Blackburn will lead to their property values plummeting and traffic chaos.

An action committee has formed to "fight the scheme all the way" and former leading educationist Lord Taylor of Blackburn has described the plans as "sacrilege".

Norman Wignall, of St Francis Road, has started a privately-funded fight to stop the school being built.

He has already hired a solicitor and will today launch a major leaflet campaign in the area.

He said: "Since these plans were announced, my phone has been red-hot and there's always someone at the door.

"In the summer, those playing fields are full of people and it's a fantastic recreation area for the youngsters which we can't afford to lose.

"Everyone is angry and upset that we'll lose the fields and we're also very concerned at the huge volume of traffic that will be created.

"We're not going to let this lie. I've lived here for 20 years and if the scheme does go-ahead I'll move out.

"But there's a lot of people who won't be able to move and their lives will become a misery.

"We realise the school needs somewhere new but this site is ridiculous. Please, please don't build it here."

Lord Taylor, now deputy speaker in the House of Lords and former education chief famous nationally for his Taylor Report on school management, said: "I was responsible in the 60s for persuading the education authority to buy the site for recreational purposes. The scheme is absolute sacrilege and it's scandalous that people are now going back on promises not to build on that land.

"The reclamation of this site is one that I feel justly proud of and I believe that building a school on this land would be a betrayal of trust of the children and residents of the area."

He said a feasibility study about to be carried out was a waste of money and roads around the area were not suitable for the high amount of traffic the school would generate.

Lord Taylor now wants the school to look for another site and is urging the planning authority to scrap the plans.

The school currently occupies two sites and came under fire from inspectors for the amount of time pupils wasted going from building to building.

Head Linda Robinson said: "We've made our position known and we will continue to release details when we think they are relevant."

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