THERE are calls for urgent investment in a cricket ground after plans to build a school on part of it were scrapped.

At a packed Leyton and Whipps Cross Community Council meeting last Thursday, residents called on the council to divert funds to secure the future of Leyton cricket ground.

But the council’s executive director of Children’s services warned the site may be built on in the future.

A plan to build a complex incorporating three schools on the site collapsed when governors rejected a council proposal to hand control of the school’s to a trust.

Marilyn Payne, a teacher and member of the Leyton Triangle group, which opposed the development, said: “We want to see a really good well run facility for youth, boys and girls. Whether we can get funding, I don't know. But we need to protect it.”

Responding to a rumour that there is still a plan to build on the site, Mr Kiernan said: “There is no proposal to build a primary school but I don't know in the future, with the demographics of the area. I wouldn't write it off at any point in the future.”

The council had proposed to move Norlington School for Boys and George Mitchell All-Through School, both in Leyton, to the site as part of a Building Schools for the Future (BSI) programme.

Residents who campaigned against the proposed development accused Mr Kiernan and the council of not taking into account the views of the 980 objectors who signed a petition - which the council counted as one objection - and said the process was undemocratic.

Mr Kiernan said: "No letters were received in support of the proposal to appropriate land at Leyton, but in our experience people tend to respond when the oppose something, not when they are in favour of it."

He admitted the council would have gone ahead with the build had George Mitchell School governors not voted against it.

A committee will be set up of four council representatives and four members of the public to manage the ground and its buildings, as requested by the charity commission.

Members of the public can be nominated and proposals for assembling a committee will be put to the council on February 25.

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