CHRISTCHURCH MP Chris Chope has got involved in a row between school campaigners and protesting residents.

Mr Chope has written to the secretary of state for communities and local government, Greg Clark, asking him to call in the application for the new school in Marsh Lane.

He takes issue with the school - which is desperately needed in the borough - being built on Green Belt land.

The site was confirmed as Green Belt during the latest Core Strategy consultation, following a fight by residents to prevent it being earmarked for housing.

"If you lived there and overlook the green belt and successfully persuaded the powers that be to keep that land in the green belt, I think it is fair to say that the reasonable expectation is that it would remain protected", Mr Chope told the Daily Echo.

"Suddenly they find themselves confronted with a major development."

In his letter to Mr Clark, the MP also comments on the alternative school sites, questioning the choice of Marsh Lane, and says the planning application should be subject to a public inquiry.

A reply to his letter, from Brandon Lewis, minister of state for housing and planning, said the application would be referred to the secretary of state, if it is approved.

But campaigners supporting the new school, have responded to Mr Chope's letter, slamming him for his 'complete lack of interest' in their plight.

In a letter from their chairman, Mr Chope is criticised for 'inaccuracies' regarding the number of letters of objection submitted to the county council.

And it challenges him over alternatives he has to the plans, should the Marsh Lane scheme be refused.

"As a representative for the parents and children affected, we would have been thrilled with the identification of a suitable brownfield site for the new school as the likelihood is that it would have been built by now and the children would all be settled in their new school and the problem would be solved", it adds.

The multi-million pound proposal is a response to the current school places crisis in Christchurch.

Temporary classrooms were originally placed at Christchurch Infants School in a bid to combat the problem, but transferred to the Twynham School site in September, until the school is built.

The scheme is likely to go before Dorset County Council's planning committee in February.