And they claim they will use the council’s own mistake to do it.

The protest group, formed from representatives of the parent councils of the schools involved in the proposed merger and local residents, held a meeting this week in Cumnock.

One of the important issues discussed was that, under the council’s own local development plan, Broomfield is zoned to remain as green land.

And that’s the way the residents want it to stay.

Craig Laidlaw, 51, project manager and local resident said: “One of the most important things that I find is that you are losing the safeguarded open space. The whole community use it, it’s free of charge.

“We’ve had the Queen’s Baton Relay here, we’ve had the Highland Games here. On the back of the Commonwealth Games what sort of legacy are we leaving here if we are ripping up the running track and the sports fields?

“The other thing is it totally contradicts all of East Ayrshire Council’s policies and strategies as well as the local development plan – to me it’s just wrong to do, we’ll never get this green space back.” On East Ayrshire Council’s Local Development Plan it shows that the Knockroon housing estate (named area 263H on the map, right) that is to be completed surrounded by greenery.

The plan states: “The existing areas of woodland located directly to the northwest and southwest of that portion of site 263H located to the west of Auchinleck Road will require to be safeguarded, managed and supplemented, as considered appropriate, as a buffer zone/screen for the development and as a recreational/amenity area for the enjoyment of local residents.” The council have since proposed the build of the super-campus, which sees Auchinleck and Cumnock academies merge alongside Greenmill, Hillside and Barshare primaries on this buffer zone. The council are currently in the middle of two consultations with the public the first being on the merger of all the schools and people have until March 27 at 4pm to put their objections into the council on this issue.

The second consultation regards amending the Local Development Plan which have proposed plans for many different changes to the local area including the Broomfield site.

A public meeting is being held on Thursday March 26 at 6.30pm at Rothesay House, Cumnock. People have until Friday April 24 at 4pm to submit their objections to any of the proposed plans.

The council have put the end of the super-campus consultations before the end of the development plan ones. This means that even if the super-campus gets the go ahead initially, it might still get knocked back if the development plans are not approved.

For more on this story, get this week's Chronicle