A SCHEME to demolish a Worcester high school and replace it with a supermarket has been met with scorn by county councillors.

Tesco has proposed demolishing Christopher Whitehead High School, in Bromwich Road and replacing it with a superstore and housing.

The firm would, in return, build a replacement school on the city's outskirts next to Bromyard Road.

The county is due to canvass public opinion on the scheme this week when questionnaires are delivered to homes with the Berrow's Worcester Journal.

Meanwhile, Worcestershire's environmental/sustainability panel, meeting yesterday, considered the plans and their impact on St John's.

Members were asked to give an opinion on the environmental and sustainable consequences of the scheme.

They were told that out of 1,031 pupils at Christopher Whitehead 72 per cent currently walked to school, 11 per cent went by car, 10 per cent by bus and four per cent by bike.

Furthermore, 641 pupils lived within one mile of the school's present site.

Councillor Derek Prodger said he had received nothing but complaints about the scheme and no letters or calls of support.

He said the most appropriate location for the high school was its present site, in the very centre of St John's close to feeder primary schools and local facilities.

He pointed out that the county council had paid £20m building a bypass to relieve traffic in St John's, but a new supermarket would attract cars back to its commercial centre while children would now live further away from their school.

Coun Maurice Broomfield said it was "most inappropriate" to have a new school on the outskirts of its catchment area.

"Anyway I'm against another supermarket in the centre of St John's," he said. "The more supermarkets you have the more our smaller shops will disappear."

Portfolio holder Coun Tom Wells said he had an "open mind" on the scheme.

"It's a once in a lifetime opportunity to build a new school," he said. "But there are clearly implications, environmental and other worries for the catchment of the school."

Coun David Inight asked why the school could not stay on its present site and the new supermarket be built on the outskirts.

Chairman Coun Bill Hartnett said the panel was against the scheme on sustainable grounds.

"We would welcome a new Christopher Whitehead on it's present site and we would welcome the competition of a new supermarket on the westside of Worcester," he said.