Developers want to build four huge houses, costing up to £2m each, on the site of South Wolds School. Each would be individually designed in a Georgian Manor style, standing in generous-sized plots.

The council-owned 26-acre site has been empty since East Riding Council closed the school seven years ago on health and safety grounds.

Planners are recommending East Riding Council refuses an application by Brickright Ltd at a meeting on Monday.

Two parish councils have objected as well as the Hotham Family Trust, "significant" local landowners who own most of the land adjoining the site.

Dalton Holme Parish Council said the homes would be "an over-sized blot on the landscape", while Etton Parish Council felt they were too high and would dominate the area.

However Brickright Ltd, a joint venture between Ispace and Simon Wride Homes, says the proposal is the most appropriate for the site, given the potential impact of alternatives, like a nursing home or a college.

But the site is in open countryside in an area defined as of high landscape value and planners say the building of four "massive" houses will have a "significant adverse" effect on the area.

Their report adds: "This is emphasised in the lack of imagination in the designs put forward."

Brickright director Simon Dixon said the firm had followed the guidance of planners, adding: "We are disappointed with the comments having gone through such a positive consultation period."

Before the school was closed for good it had been on the Government's "special measures" list. It attracted further notoriety following a police investigation into claims that restraints were used on pupils.