WORCESTER'S Civic Society is calling on its members to campaign against the lack of democracy in the city.

Chairman Chris Shaw says it should be Worcester City Council making decisions about Christopher Whitehead High School and not the county or central Government.

He is urging members to write to the Civic Trust in London to demonstrate how Worcester has lost its policy-making powers.

"When the plans to relocate the school were first made, the Civic Society rejected them," said Mr Shaw.

"We're still in the same position as we don't think it's in the interests of the community.

"The knock-on effects of the proposal are considerable.

"One of the problems we have at the moment is that, as a city, we have lost control over the educational aspects of the community.

"That is now in the hands of the county and could boil down to the Secretary of State to make decisions about this."

The school is currently at the centre of a wrangle between supermarket giants Sainsbury and Tesco.

Tesco says it will replace the school with a £15m state-of-the-art high school at Earls Court Farm, near Rushwick, should it win planning approval to bulldoze the existing school.

Worcestershire County Council's planning and regulatory committee has yet to discuss the school plans.

Sainsbury's has won permission to build in St John's and Tesco is waiting for its plans to be discussed by Worcester City Council.

"There's been a general diminution in the powers of existing local authorities," said Mr Shaw.

"The original decision to merge the girls' and boys' schools was a local decision made at Guildhall.

"There's a problem throughout the country where local authorities are being forced to toe the line whether they want to or not."