A 1,000 parents and residents have officially opposed a proposed merger of Witham’s secondary schools to become a superschool - the largest in Essex.

The consultation into the suggestion by the Academies Enterprise Trust (AET), which sponsors both Maltings and New Rickstones academies, to amalgamate them from September 2016 ended on Friday.

Up to 900 concerned people in the town have signed online and paper petitions and more have sent in representations to the schools’ headteachers and the Government, amounting to the same amount of pupils studying at Maltings Academy.

MP Priti Patel is supporting the opposition and suggested that the trust should be replaced if it cannot find an alternative plan to merging the two schools.

See this week's Braintree and Witham Times for the full story.