A CAMPAIGN has been launched to save two special trees from the chop when bulldozers move in on the old Kidderminster College.

The Hoo Road site will be vacated at the end of this week. When staff and students go back after the Easter vacation on May 6, it will be to the new £9 million college in Market Street.

But after past and present staff covering more than 40 years of college history gathered in the former library on Friday, lecturer Phil Seaton felt it would be wrong to see two trees lost under the concrete. lecturer Phil Seaton with one of the trees he wants to save from the axe.

"We had about 60 people who used to work there, not just teaching staff but caretakers and everyone. It was a great time. I saw people I hadn't seen for years," the biologist said.

"But there were only a handful of us who remembered two of the trees in the college grounds were commemorative. They don't have plaques and it would be a shame if they were to just disappear."

He said a North American sweetgum was planted in the quadrangle in memory of popular pottery lecturer Horace Stanford, who died in the 1970s while in his early 40s.

And the other, a paper bark maple, was planted when the first phase of the college was opened in 1956.

"If the maple was in a botanical garden, everyone would say how wonderful it was," said Mr Seaton, a renowned orchid expert. "I would hope there would be room for both of these trees in the new development. They would look good in someone's garden."

A spokesman for developer David Wilson Homes said: " We are not aware of any trees on the Kidderminster College site which have formal tree preservation orders. But we will investigate the whereabouts of the memorial trees and consider their positioning as part of our reserved matters planning application in due course."

The college site has detailed planning consent for 76 homes.