THE fight to build a super-school is continuing this week after the Herts and Essex and Bishop’s Stortford highs launched an appeal.
The two secondaries want to build a joint campus on Green Belt land off Whittington Way, Thorley, but the project was blocked by East Herts District council last year after a storm of protest, led the by the town’s Civic Federation.
Today (Monday, March 21) the two schools, backed by Herts County Council, have revealed they have rejected that verdict and want a Government inspector to determine the application once and for all.
Speaking on behalf of the two schools, Rodney Stock, the chairman of governors at the Bishop’s Stortford High School, said: “The decision to lodge a planning appeal was not taken lightly by the schools and county council but the appeal proposal is considered to represent the only deliverable solution to meet the existing and emerging need for additional secondary school places in the town.
“In coming to its decision to refuse our planning application, the district council’s development control committee recognised that the planning and educational considerations were very finely balanced. We will ask the independent planning inspector to give greater weight to the educational need and the opportunity to provide two outstanding schools with premises fit for the 21st century.”
Appeals have also been lodged against the district council’s refusal of related planning applications for residential development on the existing school sites and the former secondary school reserve site at Hadham Road – which would finance the super-school construction.
An independent inspector appointed by the Planning Inspectorate will consider the appeals at an inquiry expected to be held in the late summer or early autumn and all interested parties will have the opportunity to present their cases, for and against, to the inquiry.
Following the inquiry, the inspector will present a report and recommendation to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles MP, for a final decision, which is expected towards the end of the year.
