Rap for council over historic school

THERE were “serious flaws” in the way a West Yorkshire council approved a plan to demolish a listed Victorian schoolroom and build new houses on the site, a watchdog has found.

Local Government Ombudsman, Anne Seex, in response to concerns from local residents, found serious errors and omissions in the report and presentation to Kirklees Council’s planning sub-committee that granted the permissions.

In her report, issued today, she says: “If the planning sub-committee had been properly advised and directed to the proper considerations for these applications, I believe that it would not have approved the applications.”

Residents complained about the way the council dealt with applications for listed building consent to demolish an unidentified Victorian Sunday schoolroom in Kirklees and replace it with four homes.

The schoolroom was one of three buildings owned at the time by the Methodist Church. The main building, a large and distinctive chapel, is a Grade II listed building.

The church applied for listed building consent and planning permission with its agents saying in a report in November 2006 that the schoolroom had fallen into disrepair and disuse because the church did not have the money to maintain it.

They also argued that demolishing the Victorian schoolroom and selling the site with planning permission would “enable” the associated distinctive, listed chapel to be repaired and refurbished.

The planning officer accepted that without applying any of the tests required by English Heritage for such “enabling” development and the sub-committee were not told of:

n The law requiring them to have special regard to preserving the listed schoolroom;

n National planning guidance that there should be a general presumption in favour of preserving listed buildings;

n The specific tests that they should have applied before giving permission for the schoolroom to be demolished; and

n Relevant comments from the council’s own conservation specialists.

Some 32 photographs were shown to the sub-committee to illustrate the dilapidated condition of the schoolroom – 24 of them were of a completely different building.

The ombudsman says: “The failure to give clear, comprehensible professional views and assessments of the two applications was maladministration.”

She concludes that the council’s maladministration caused injustice to the people who complained.

The injustice was the potential loss of part of their area’s built heritage that contributes to the setting of the distinctive, listed chapel and the general character of the conservation area.

She adds: “The ombudsman recommends that the council should remedy this injustice by seeking to negotiate for the permissions to be relinquished in favour of a new scheme, for which it will meet reasonable design costs and planning application fees.

“In the event that negotiations fail the council should consider revoking the permissions after considering a full report on all the relevant issues.”

Kirklees Council said in a statement: “We accept the ombudsman’s findings and, since this application was handled three years ago, we have made changes to some of our planning processes.

“Ways of dealing with planning applications and consents which relate to the area’s heritage have been tightened up.

“We also have more effective management of case officers and have strengthened our links with partners such as English Heritage.”

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