Plan to move village school to a housing estate is approved

Wilby Primary School will be moving out of the village and relocating to a housing estate

A controversial plan to relocate a village primary school to a large housing estate has been approved.

Wilby Church of England Primary School will move to Glenvale Park on the edge of Wellingborough.

The proposal has now been accepted by North Northamptonshire Council's executive.

Some parents started a petition against the move, saying that they wanted their children to stay in a small village school.

A school had been planned for the new Glenvale Park development, but officials decided that the number of houses occupied on the estate was not enough to justify a school opening until 2025 at the earliest.

To get it open a year earlier, existing schools in the area were invited to express an interest in moving into the Glenvale Park building, and Wilby Primary was the successful bid out of the two that were made.

Ruth Pritchard says the small local primary school was one thing that attracted her to Wilby

One of the Wilby parents who objected was Ruth Pritchard, who told BBC Radio Northampton: "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."

At a meeting of North Northamptonshire Council's executive, councillors heard that the majority of responses to a consultation exercise were positive.

The Labour councillor Valerie Anslow said: "The consultation results show, after the initial outrage, the general acceptance of this as being good for pupils and staff. although the responses by parents who are fearful of the change need to be taken seriously."

The new school will be built on the Glenvale Park development

After the move was approved, the leader of the council, Jason Smithers, said: "We want school capacity within our area.

"People are moving into the area, they want good schools that they can go to, they buy a house in Stanton Cross and they've got a place in a school."

Scott Edwards, NNC's executive member for education, sought to reassure worried parents.

"For those parents that weren't particularly happy with it, PDET [the Peterborough Diocese group that owns the school] have said they will work with those parents to provide some solutions to the questions they have."