Academy proposal gets green light

County councillors have backed a controversial proposal to close a Norfolk school to make way for a new £20m academy.

Heartsease High, north of Norwich, will close in the summer.

The cabinet had backed the project at a meeting last year but opposition Labour and Lib Dem councillors called for the plan to be examined further.

About 550 parents, teachers and councillors opposed the plan and one said local views had been ignored.

Parent governor Sue Burnett-Thomas said: "Those 550 people are people from the Heartsease estate with children that are either at the school or potentially going to be going to the school.

Local community

"Those are the people that matter, those are the people who are involved in the school.

"There is a lot of bad feeling about the whole process and I think people have had enough of it."

The county councillor responsible for children's services, Rosalie Monbiot, said the new academy would improve education in the area.

She said: "Heartsease High School is only two-thirds full at the moment.

"Students are not staying on in the sixth form so parents and children are choosing to go to other schools.

"We need to get them back into their local school and working within their local community."