A BILLINGE woman and her neighbours are waging war against the Liverpool Archdiocese over plans to demolish an historic school building.

Following months of uncertainty over the future of the now derelict Birchley St Mary's school building on Main Street, a spokesman for the Liverpool Archdiocese told the Star: "We are now in the process of selling the land and a demolition team has been ordered in for the near future to clear the land for re-development."

However, Christine Gedman from Brookside Close, representing the Billinge Residents and Tenants Association told the Star: "We have been campaigning for the building to be restored since learning of the Archdiocese's plans last year. We have done quite a bit of research into its history and have discovered that the building itself is about 140 years old - a lot of history! So we contacted English Heritage last year when the proposals were made public in the hope that we could get the building preserved and listed. The appeal was turned down and we have now learnt that the land has been sold to a developer."

She added: "It seems that the Archdiocese is selling off more and more land - we know that St Austin's Club in Thatto Heath is threatened with closure and recently, a school in Parr has been told it may close. There is no way we are going to go down without a fight and the BRTA will be holding protests on the Main Street site to let them know exactly how residents feel."

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