THE owner of the Abbey College, in Malvern Wells, is among those bidding to buy the former St James's School in West Malvern.

Hekmat Kaveh has joined with an unnamed educational establishment to bid for the former girls' school.

"We're working with a large organisation in the educational field, which does not want to be named at this stage," he said.

The school is up for sale, with an expected price tag of £6 million, after St James's merger with Malvern Girls' College to form Malvern St James.

Bids for the school had to be in with agents Andrew Grant Commercial by end of business on Wednesday. Yesterday, no-one from Andrew Grant was willing to say how many bids had been received.

Mr Kaveh said the deadline had been announced suddenly in the last few days.

"It took us a little by surprise. These things normally take longer than that," he said.

If Mr Kaveh buys the school it is not yet certain whether the Abbey College would vacate its Wells premises and move to West Malvern.

"It's flexible. There are all sorts of considerations over planning issues," he said. "Moving our business from the Wells to the West is one of the possibilities among many."

This week's deadline for bids will come as a surprise to around 200 West Malvern residents who attended a public meeting at St James's about the site's future on Monday night, where it was not mentioned.

Angela Hensher, deputy bursar at Malvern St James, said the deadline had been set to allow the school's trustees, due to meet today (Friday), a chance to consider the bids.

She said the deadline was "not relevant" to the business of the meeting.

"A property like this does not get sold in 28 days, like a normal house. Whatever the trustees decide, I don't expect anything will be settled before Christmas. There will be plenty of time for another meeting," she said.

According to Mrs Hensher, there has been a great deal of interest in the property; 48 interested parties have visited it.

The Abbey College was established in 1979 and offers GCSE and A'Level courses, foundation and access courses and summer schools for foreign students.

Malvern Wells residents who live near the college say that noise and students coming and going late at night can make life difficult, especially during the summer.

Neill Lewis, of Kings Road, said he had had to contact the Environmental Health service about it.

"We have had problems. The sound travels, especially at three 'o clock in the morning," he said. "We can't really sit in our garden during summer evenings.

Commenting on the St James's bid, Michael Quick, of Wells Road, said: "I think it's better from a residents point of view that they expand to another site".