Campaigners fighting a government proposal to concrete over a well-used section of playing fields in Brighton and Hove to make way for a new Free School will deliver a petition to Downing Street tomorrow calling on the Education Secretary to drop the plans.

Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas, Ruth Buckley, Green Councillor at Brighton & Hove City Council and representatives from the Friends of the Field group will doorstep Number 10 with the 4,000-signature petition to highlight the local community’s strong opposition.

Lucas is also tabling an Early Day Motion calling on Michael Gove to ditch the controversial plans to build the new Kings Free School on fields used by Cardinal Newman Catholic School, Brighton Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College (BHASVIC) and Stanford Junior and Infants Schools.

The playing fields are currently used daily by the schools and the local community, with a joint statement from the schools warning that the Free School plan would “severely impair our institutions’ provision for sports” and “permanently remove a vital green space in the heart of a densely populated city”.

The EDM comes a few days after the Brighton and Hove City Council Green Group passed a Motion opposing the imposition of new school sites on local communities by central government.

Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion, said:

"This is a government which likes to preach about localism and devolving power to local decision makers, yet here it is barging into Brighton and Hove with plans to concrete over a piece of much valued land against the wishes of the local community.

"The Education Funding Agency, the government body which chose the site for the Free School, seems to have completely disregarded the fact that this land isn’t sitting vacant – the field is used by more than 4,000 students at four separate schools and is much valued by the community.

"While there is a pressing need for more school places, imposing a Free School development on existing sports fields is not the answer.  Rather than riding roughshod over the wishes of local people, Michael Gove must now drop the misguided plans and work with the local authority to find a more suitable location."

Green Councillor Ruth Buckley, who proposed the Council Motion, added:

"Through its ill-considered 'Land Transfer Scheme', the Government has effectively allowed the Secretary of State for Education to propose a 'land-grab' on this much-loved field against the wishes of the local schools, the community, sports teams, and even the local Conservative MP. 

"This imposition by central government is completely unacceptable and, as the Green Administration made clear in our Motion to Council last week, we believe that local authorities are far better placed to identify suitable sites for educational purposes."

ENDS