CONCERNED residents have voiced strong objections to the proposed site of a school.

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council wants to demolish Beech Grove Primary School, close Cromwell Road Primary School and build a joint replacement at the existing Beech Grove site, off Poplar Grove, in South Bank, Teesside.

But many people want the new building to be on the site of Cromwell Road school.

Residents living near Beech Grove School are concerned about the amount of traffic the new school would generate with the extra 400 pupils from Cromwell Road.

Poplar Grove residents said cars already parked in and across their drives and said they were regularly subjected to verbal abuse from drivers taking children to the school.

They want an access to be created in Briggs Avenue.

A petition of 127 signatures from the residents of Briggs Avenue objecting to this has been received by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council.

The council's planning committee agreed to defer a decision on whether to allow the school to be built at the Beech Grove site after a plea by South Bank councillor Pearl Hall. Coun Hall, who is also chairwoman of the South Bank Residents' Association, said: "The people of South Bank have mandated me to fight and save the Cromwell Road school.

"There has been no real consultation and people here are angry.

"Having the school at the Beech Grove site would cause safety problems for the children currently attending Cromwell Road, because they would have to negotiate the busy Normanby Road.

"And there are already two other Catholic primary schools right near Beech Grove Primary. The traffic is going to be awful."

Traffic concerns from residents in Briggs Avenue have been allayed by a proposal to arrange a temporary access from the nearby industrial estate for heavy site traffic.

Councillors will raise concerns over transport, safety and lack of consultation concerns with its education department.

Planning officer Doreen Mealing told councillors: "Whatever the reason the education department decided on this site, we should consider that. Concerns over traffic and a lack of consultation are not sound planning reasons for refusing this application."