"Published on Thursday 17 March 2005 11:26 THE OWNERS of St Elphin's school in Darley Dale have clashed with Derbyshire Dales District Council over unauthorised building work on the school grounds. Darley Dale residents raised the alarm after work began on an access road. It was later revealed that planning permission was not sought. Council enforcement officers ordered the work to stop last Friday, on the day the prestigious school was controversially closed. Paul Wilson, district council planning services manager, said: "As soon as it was brought to our attention we went out and requested the work was stopped. The council does not condone this at all. "Anyone who undertakes developments without planning permission is liable to prosecution if it is deemed to be unacceptable. It is a very high risk strategy." An application for permission has now been lodged with the council and will take between three and eight weeks to be determined, but a tree, which was the subject of a preservation order, was cut down. The owners of the school were unavailable for comment. The latest developments have fuelled fears about the future use of the school, following a special meeting last week when parents and pupils were told that the school closed because of a bad business decision. At the meeting St Elphin's/Darley Dale Ltd boss Kevin Burke said: "We should not have bought the school. We made a bad business decision. Now we are moving on." Mr Burke admitted his company had no experience of running a school and St Elphin's was no longer financially viable. The company had hoped to gain extra funds through a planning application to build houses on the site and a 500,000 legacy that had been promised to the school. But the application was turned down by Derbyshire Dales District Council in January and the legacy had been frozen by the Charity's Commission. Mr Burke also claimed that 80,000 of fees were still unpaid from parents. Parent Steve Chyrstal said: "We understand that you are businessmen but to drag a school down is disgusting."
Reprinted by kind permission of Matlock Mercury |
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