Site revealed for new 750-place girls school in Stourbridge

Old Swinford Hospital School – which already has a boys school in the town – wants to develop fields opposite the Roman Catholic Cemetery on the A451 Norton Road.

The land, just past the Racecourse Lane island by The Greyhound pub in Norton, is owned by the Thomas Foley Foundation – a registered charity linked to Old Swinford Hospital School.

Headteacher at Old Swinford Hospital School Paul Kilbride, said the land was the only location being looked at during the first public consultation on Monday evening.

He said the free school would be non-selective, aimed at disadvantaged girls aged 11-16 from across the Black Country and would be funded by the Department for Education.

However a campaign group has already launched against the development on the green belt land.

And some residents who turned out to the meeting voiced their concerns over a new boarding school in Norton Road with calls for the former Longlands School site in Bowling Green Road, Stourbridge, to be used instead.

One resident, who would only be named as Michael, said: “Once it is in, the number of students and the purpose of the school could change. There are no guarantees.”

Other residents raised fears over accidents along the busy road and said there was flooding issues too.

Mr Kilbride said: “It is not a school for Stourbridge, Stourbridge frankly does not need another secondary school but the Black Country certainly does.

"It is a school for disadvantaged girls who still have aspiration and they still have hunger.”

There is another meeting tomorrow at 7pm at the boys school in Heath Lane.