Published: 02/09/2010 09:00 - Updated: 01/09/2010 16:06

BRITAIN’S oldest conservation body has joined the campaign to block a Bishop’s Stortford super-school.

 

Confirmation that the Open Spaces Society has lodged a formal objection to the scheme came as the town’s Civic Federation presented its 2,854-signature petition against the revised plans to East Herts District Council.

 

The authority’s development control committee will meet at Stortford’s Charis Centre on September 30 to determine the application from the governors of the Herts and Essex and Bishop’s Stortford High Schools, who want to redevelop their existing town centre sites in Beldams Lane, Warwick Road and London Road for hundreds of new homes and relocate to Whittington Way, Thorley – where they plan to expand side by side.

 

The bid has prompted opposition from the Open Spaces Society because it will “severely interfere” with a long-distance footpath called the Hertfordshire Way.  

 

The 190-mile circular route was created to mark the Ramblers’ Association’s silver jubilee in 1995 and was opened in 1998.

 

Kate Ashbrook, general secretary of the Open Spaces Society, said: “We opposed the (super-school) plan in 2008 and we oppose it now.  It will destroy people’s enjoyment of the Hertfordshire Way which crosses the site.  This footpath is one of Hertfordshire’s gems.

 

“The path will be squeezed between the car park and dropping-off point for school coaches on one side and the new buildings on the other.  It will be closed in by fences, with crossing points for vehicles.

 

“This pleasant, open country walk will become an urban tunnel where walkers must watch out for vehicles.  This will be a blackspot on this long-distance path, which should be the pride of Hertfordshire.

 

“The applicants have employed planning and urban design consultants, Vincent and Gorbing, to make their case.  But these experts have admitted that the development will have ‘a direct impact on the Hertfordshire Way’, that ‘the character of the path will inevitably change’ and that ‘the proposed buildings within the building area will have a significant impact on the character of the footpath and on views from the footpath’.  

 

“That is the view of professionals, and it’s pretty damning.”

 

She concluded: “Nothing has changed since 2008, except that green countryside and recreational footpaths have become even more precious.  We urge the council to reject this application which is widely condemned, by local people and organisations.”

 

The Open Spaces Society was founded in 1865 and is Britain’s oldest national conservation body.