RESIDENTS are calling for more consultation over the proposed £20 million redevelopment on one site of St John's School, Marlborough, financed by the sale of the lower school site for homes.
Members of the newly-formed St John's Neighbourhood Residents' Association, made up of people living near both sites, fear up to 250 homes could be built on the Chopping Knife Lane site, rather than the 150 originally proposed.
David Norman, who lives in Chopping Knife Lane, two doors away from the lower school site, chaired the launch meeting of the association in the Bear Hotel, which was attended by more than 30 people.
Mr Norman said that apart from a recent exhibition put on by developers Crest Nicholson at the town hall, at which residents could ask questions, he was not aware that the school had organised any other public forum.
He said: "Objections to the consolidation of St John's School and Community College on one site are gaining momentum as many townspeople struggle to come to grips with the full implications of the project."
The association issued a press release in which it said it was believed the consolidation of the school on the one site would have "far-reaching effects for the whole of Marlborough and the surrounding area".
It said the association believed the issues of the consolidation and of the development of the Chopping Knife Lane site should be divorced. And it called for "wider public debate of all the issues and more openness".
Dr Patrick Hazlewood, head at St John's, said this week that there had been plenty of opportunities for consultation.
"The town and district councillors have been kept updated at every stage," he said.
"Anyone who has asked questions about the scheme we have invited them in to discuss it or we have corresponded with them."
Dr Hazlewood said Crest Nicholson had to increase the number of proposed homes from the original 150 to what he believed would be about 200.
This was, he said, to make the development viable when local authorities were insisting that half of the development would be affordable homes or social housing.
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