Villagers are at loggerheads with school governors over a housing scheme which would provide new facilities for local pupils.

Retired pig farmer Peter Brook, 62, has offered to give £1 million and a two-and-a-half acre site in Wivelsfield Green to Wivelsfield Primary School - if he gets planning permission for 40 homes nearby.

Governors have launched a leaflet campaign to get residents on side, saying it is time the small Victorian school in Church Lane, Wivelsfield, was replaced to stop rolls falling.

Pupils are taught in a 124-year-old building or portable buildings on a cramped site with no playing fields.

But people living yards from the site of the proposed new school, on fields at Coldharbour Farm, say it is the wrong place for it.

South Road resident Peter Fawcitt said: "I think I may have to move because of this.

"The other morning I counted 600 vehicles an hour going along this road, and this included everything from 42-tonne lorries to tractors and cars.

"You only need one or two vehicles parked here and the traffic is piling up. With the traffic from the school it would be a nightmare."

Fellow resident George Theakstone said: "I am keen on a new school because I think we desperately need one.

"What I am against is building on the Coldharbour Farm site because it is right opposite our houses. I don't want to see houses and a new school on a green field."

Horsham-based Berkeley Homes Southern has offered about £2 million for the land, of which Mr Brook would get £1 million to share with his wife and family.

The other half would be put towards the £2.5 million cost of the new school. Proceeds from the sale of the old Victorian school would help raise the balance.

No one at the school was available for comment.

Previous larger planning applications for the area have been turned down.