A CAMPAIGN is under way to unite those opposed to the construction of a primary school on green belt land in Merstham.
Surrey County Council initially said a planning application would be submitted for a 420-pupil school in February. They then said it would be July, but the plans have still not been lodged.
Opponents of the council's choice of a site in Battlebridge Lane are angry that planning permission appears a fait accompli.
They say the authority is "pre-judging" the planning process by stating that Lime Tree Primary School, which opens in a temporary home in Reigate this September, "will" move to the Merstham site within two years.
Now, mum of four Catriona Calder, of London Road South, Merstham, has set up a Facebook group to unite those trying to fight the plans.
She told the Mirror she was fully behind a new school, but the Battlebridge Lane skate park site was the wrong place for it.
She added: "Traffic and the safety of children are my main concerns. The council thinks families are going to walk to school but that is pie in the sky.
"Even if half of those 400 children come from the same families, and half of those are driven to school, that is still 100 extra cars that are not just passing through, they are stopping, and there has to be somewhere safe for them to stop – there is a lot of traffic and a lot of HGVs.
"There is also the safety aspect with the children using Battlebridge Recreation Ground, which is open to the public, as their green space.
"Lastly, it is green belt, and it is one of the last bastions between Redhill and Merstham."
The council has previously said it considered 17 other sites – including plots apparently too small for a school, National Trust land and a neighbourhood green – before settling on Battlebridge, but has not provided the criteria on which the sites were judged.
Mrs Calder said the large St Nicholas School plot in Taynton Drive would be a better location.
Robert McIntyre, chairman of the Holmethorpe Estate Association, also has serious concerns about the Battlebridge site.
He said: "Children are encouraged to walk to school but they will be walking through an industrial estate, which is just crazy.
"The pavements we do have are parked on by lorries. I am horrified by the thought of young children walking through there."
In the face of a school places crisis, Surrey County Council has argued that Battlebridge is the best site for a new school.
Cabinet member for schools Linda Kemeny has said she thinks it is "suitable" and the council says it will consider concerns about traffic as part of the planning process.
The Facebook page is at www.facebook.com/NoToBattlebridgeSite
