A war of words has broken out between parents from neighbouring communities as one group tries to establish a ‘free’ secondary school in Birkenshaw.

The Birstall, Birkenshaw and Gomersal Parents’ Alliance has the support of Prime Minister David Cameron and Education Secretary Michael Gove in their bid to open the parent-led school on the site of Birkenshaw Middle School.

Their proposals, drawn up with private firm Serco, will be re-submitted to the Government after they were turned away by the previous Labour administration.

But the Whitcliffe Mount Parents’ Alliance facebook group has condemned the plans. It claims that Whitcliffe Mount Business and Enterprise College in Cleckheaton would not be modernised to take extra pupils if money was invested in a school in Birkenshaw.

Hazel Danson, West Yorkshire national executive member of the National Union of Teachers, said: “A new 900-place Birkenshaw school would create hundreds of surplus places and sap money from existing schools jeopardising their future.”

Birkenshaw campaigner Lesley Surman said: “It’s not a school that’s going to be selective. Children living within the area, regardless of race, faith, income, gender or ability, will be able to apply for places.”