By RICHARD CORNWELLrichard.cornwell@eveningstar.co.uk>SUFFOLK: Bids to build two new high schools in Felixstowe and Ipswich have today taken a major step forward.

Richard Cornwell

By RICHARD CORNWELL

richard.cornwell@eveningstar.co.uk>

SUFFOLK: Bids to build two new high schools in Felixstowe and Ipswich have today taken a major step forward.

Formal planning applications have been submitted in the latest stage of the multi-million pound projects, although full details of design, size and facilities will come later.

A new school to replace Holywells High is set to be built on land near the recreation ground in Braziers Wood Road, Ipswich, while Deben High and Orwell High will be replaced with a 1,850-student campus off Maidstone Road, Felixstowe.

The Felixstowe project is expected to follow shortly with a project to create a new access off Walton High Street with land for new homes.

The �32 Felixstowe school is set to be an academy but the proposal has created furious reaction from parents and governors of both Deben and Orwell.

Suffolk Coastal MP John Gummer is to give his views at a public meeting on Friday, January 29 at 7.30pm in the main hall at Deben High School, Garrison Lane, organised by the Felixstowe Against an Academy School in the Town (FAAST) protest group.

Pete Barnsley, spokesman for FAAST, said: “This meeting will be a chance for people to hear the latest situation and also to ask questions.

“It should be a very interesting evening and we are hoping it will be well attended.”

The county council has agreed the new school - to open in four years' time - should be an academy run by the Essex-based Academies Enterprise Trust (AET) and says the move will improve standards.

Government has already accepted the move in principle and a formal decision is expected in the next few months.

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