RESIDENTS who have been campaigning against a new school being built on a recreation ground on a Weston estate are horrified to discover that North Somerset Council can not find the site's deeds.

RESIDENTS who have been campaigning against a new school being built on a recreation ground on a Weston estate say they were horrified to discover that North Somerset Council cannot find the deeds for the site.

People living around the green land on the Bournville estate have been fighting the authority’s plans to build a new school there after merging Bournville infant and junior schools.

They petitioned their local councillor Ian Parker saying a covenant was in place that the land had to remain as a recreation ground. But after Cllr Parker questioned the issue with council officers they admitted they could not find the deeds to the field near Lonsdale Avenue and Selworthy Road.

At a full council meeting on Tuesday, Cllr Parker handed a 115-name petition against the plans for a new state-of-the-art school to council chairman Cllr David Shopland.

Cllr Parker said after the meeting: “I have been told by one resident that according to an age-old covenant, the field must be used only for recreational use. But the council officers told me there is no such agreement in the deeds.

“However, when I went to check for myself the officers told me they had disappeared and were looking for them. It makes me suspicious.”

There will be a meeting for all residents affected at the For All Healthy Living Centre in Lonsdale Avenue in October.

Cllr Parker added: “We need to find a compromise for the benefit of the kids.”

A council spokesman said: “Currently the Selworthy/Lonsdale Road location is the preferred location for the combined Bournville School. A feasibility and site survey as well as public consultation on this preferred site is to be carried out shortly.”