November 10, 1978

THERE were angry scenes as over 100 parents protesting at plans to knock down The Abbey High School lobbied civic leaders.

They shouted down corporation chiefs, who argued the demolition of the school was necessary to complete the town's ring road.

And the mass meeting called by The Abbey's Parent Teacher Association labelled plans to move all the pupils to a new school in Church Hill as "a crackpot idea for wasting money".

The last stage of the ring road will cost £2.7 million and be designed to carry 4,800 vehicles an hour.