West Sussex County Council's consultation is to run until April 8 and a second consultation, headed by educationalist Dame Jocelyn Barrows, is set to close on May 10.

"It is vital that as many people as possible, both for education and community reasons, respond to both, so that the authorities have to make a decision based on knowledge of what local people really think," said NAME campaigners Janet and John Newman.

They said NAME regarded it as totally unacceptable that important decisions which would affect generations and could have a negative effect on the communities involved were being 'rushed through pell-mell, with inadequate information, and via a series of 'consultations' so overlapping that one could legitimately wonder if the process is deliberately intended to confuse'.

The campaigners said the two booklets giving information on the proposed academy were inadequate.

"There is no detail, for instance, about how the curriculum will change – which surely we should know, if we are to be able to agree that things might be better.

"What information is given about a considered analysis of the effect of change on communities? How can a headlong rush be justified when the decisions involved are so important? Have even the county councillors been fully informed of all the issues involved?"

Neither booklet, they pointed out, publicly stated where the new academy would be sited.

"Surely this is of critical importance to Easebourne, Midhurst and Petworth, and NAME demands that all of these communities be properly informed and consulted before any decision is made."

NAME plans to hold further public meetings of its own in Midhurst and Petworth.

These will be on:
Monday, March 31 at 7.30pm, Garden Room, Grange Centre, Midhurst
Wednesday, April 2 at 1pm, Methodist Church Hall, Midhurst
Thursday, April 3, 7.30pm, Leconfield Hall, Petworth.