Wilby parents unhappy with plan to move school to Wellingborough

Parents Claire Fitzhugh and Ruth Pritchard do not want the school to move

Parents at a village school say their local community will suffer if plans to move the school to a site three miles away go ahead.

The proposal would see Wilby Church of England Primary School relocate to the Glenvale Park development in Wellingborough.

A consultation on the plan is now open.

The chair of governors says a new building would be better for the children.

Glenvale Park will eventually have around 3,000 new homes.

The original plan was to start a new school on the site, but demographic changes meant there would be no need for one until 2025 at the earliest.

Instead, officials decided to invite existing schools to express interest in relocating to the site, where the school is currently being built with the aim of welcoming students in September 2024.

There were two responses, and the bid from Wilby CofE Primary School was chosen as the most promising.

'Bit of a blow'

Some of the parents of the 87 pupils at the school are not happy and a petition has been started against the move.

The consultation, organised by North Northamptonshire Council, closes on 5 October.

Ruth Pritchard, who moved to the Wilby area a year ago, said: "What drew me to the area was the school, so being in the catchment of a small local primary school is really important to us.

"It has been a bit of a blow hearing that it may not be here much longer."

Wilby Primary School would move out of the village under the plan

Claire Fitzhugh, who has one child who left the school five years ago and another who starts this term, said: "I was really gutted to hear that it was going because of it being such a significant part of the village.

"My main reason [for objecting] would be the size of the school.

"The new school has a capacity of 420 children which would diminish that intimate learning environment that would be provided within the village school."

The new school will be built on the Glenvale Park development

Lynette Dudley, the chair of governors at Wilby Primary, believes having a new building would be the best thing for the pupils.

She said: "At the moment, the children have a tiny playground, [and] no green space, which has always been an issue.

"As governors, we are always concerned about the state of the building, the damp, the plaster on the walls.

"The building can't be sustained for ever, and there is a huge risk factor that eventually the diocese and the local authority will say 'this is too expensive to keep running'."