The former Lord Mayor of Oxford has come up with a brainwave to move Oxford's Cheney School into Milham Ford School which will close as part of the city's education shake-up.

Maureen Christian says the move would safeguard the future of a rare wildlife habitat in the grounds of Milham Ford and would allow Oxford Brookes University to expand on to the nearby Cheney School site.

Milham Ford School

She told the city's planning committee: "Milham Ford is a very beautiful site with playing fields attached that would be capable of some development. It also has an important wildlife conservation area that would be best preserved if Milham Ford remained as a school rather than being redeveloped."

The site is a rare habitat because of pure spring water which flows from Headington Hill. The New Marston Wildlife group fears that future development on the site could block the water source, killing wildlife.

Milham Ford girls' school, in Harberton Mead, is being closed as Oxford's three-tier schools system is replaced with a two-tier scheme.

Cllr Christian said her plan would give Cheney School a site with playing fields and provide a secondary school for Marston.

Some children in Marston are forced to travel to other Oxford schools because of a shortage of places at The Cherwell School, in Marston Ferry Road, and Cheney School.

But Alan Lane, headteacher of Cheney School, dismissed Cllr Christian's scheme. He said: "This possibility was looked into thoroughly by the county several years ago.

"The fact is, the Milham Ford site is significantly smaller than the present Cheney site and their school buildings are also much smaller. So there is no way that Cheney could be relocated in the way that has been suggested."

Oxfordshire County Council needs to have sold the Milham Ford site by April 1, 2003 in order to fund the reorganisation. A date for the school's closure has not yet been set.

Oxford City Council will consult the public on plans for the site, but it has not yet been decided when.