Campaigners fighting proposals for a prominent city high school to become an academy have called a public meeting.

This week it emerged the Department for Education (DfE) wants the Hewett School, which was placed in special measures in November, to become an academy sponsored by the Inspiration Trust.

The We're Backing Hewett campaign will hold the meeting at 7pm on Sunday, March 8, at St Alban's Church Hall in Grove Walk.

On Wednesday, Norwich South MP Simon Wright told MPs the 'centrally imposed proposal' from the DfE went 'against the spirit of localism'.

Now, his Labour opponent at the general election, Clive Lewis, has written an open letter to Inspiration Trust chief executive Dame Rachel de Souza, rejecting a meeting to discuss plans for the school.

He wrote: 'Unless Dame Rachel de Souza and the Inspiration Trust are planning to pull out of the enforced DfE 'scorched earth' programme of asset stripping currently taking place at Hewett, I'm afraid we will have little to discuss.'

The Inspiration Trust did not respond to a request for comment, but in an earlier statement Dame Rachel said: 'The trust would be utterly committed to Hewett students getting the best exam grades possible, more Hewett students going to Britain's best universities and becoming future community leaders in Norwich.'

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