A community leader has accused Slough Borough Council of failing to keep people properly informed in the lead up to a new school being built in Chalvey.

It is an open secret that the new Grove Academy which will offer education to children aged from nursery up to 18 will be built on the Green, on or near the site currently occupied by Chalvey Community Centre and surrounding buildings.

But at Tuesday's meeting of residents' organisation the Chalvey Forum, treasurer Lynda Bussley said that the official notice published in a local paper by the council announcing the reclamation of 1.4 hectares of land at the Green had been so small that nobody had seen it - leading to her and her husband being the only objectors.

She said: "The council has fulfilled its statutory obligation but it was not sufficient to reach the people of Chalvey."

The reclamation notice clearly marked the first stage towards building the new school, although the council is still refusing to confirm this.

But Mrs Bussley revealed she had met Slough Borough Council's head of asset management Stephen Gibson and fellow officer Tony Madden and had learned they were expecting a planning application to come in by December. She said the officers had tried to persuade and her husband to withdraw their formal objection.

She said: "I recognise the need for school places but not in Chalvey the way the traffic is. It already takes 30 minutes to go a quarter of a mile and with extra school traffic nothing is going to move."

But the meeting seemed resigned to the school arriving in Chalvey. Mrs Bussley said the Government was clearly determined to see the school there.

Cllr Mohammed Sharif - who is a cabinet member at Slough Council - attended the meeting. He said: "The schools is likely to happen so my suggestion is for us all to work together to get the best deal possible out of it."

He acknowledged that coming up with a traffic solution would need to be part of any application.

Forum chairman Margaret Inniss said: "We need to get together and be realistic about what's going to happen here."