Greenshaw Learning Trust (GLT) has refused to build a new secondary school on Sutton Council-owned land in Belmont.

The trust said the old Sutton Hospital site, which the council bought for £8m, "will not provide the quality of education we would want to offer" because of its size.

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The announcement comes as a blow to the council which has always maintained the land is big enough for the secondary school the borough needs - despite the Education Funding Agency (EFA) saying otherwise.

Last month GLT said it had been blindsided by the council's decision to block construction of the planned school on derelict land in Rosehill, which the EFA had said it preferred.

GLT chairman Mike Cooper said: "We have Department for Education approval for our plans for a new 11 to 19 mixed comprehensive secondary school to help meet the needs of the local community.

"It will include a sixth form and will eventually take 1,450 students.

"Having given it careful consideration the trust has concluded that the land the council has bought on the Sutton Hospital site will not accommodate the school we have planned and will not provide the quality of education we would want to offer to future generations of students."

A Sutton Council spokesman said: "It is acknowledged that the site is constrained so the council is working with the EFA on the possibility of delivering a smaller school on this site subject to a provider being found.

"It is no longer realistic to expect new schools to be built on large sites adjacent to playing fields because the land is simply not available.

"The reason that a school will be located on the hospital site is because it is the only brownfield site in the borough that is available and capable of supporting new school provision."

But GLT said in an earlier statement: "Whilst the council describe the Sutton Hospital site as 'brownfield', building a school there would require the removal of grass and trees - probably more than the proposals for a school at Rosehill."