Council under fire over luxury home plan on county school site

East Riding Council will try to gain permission on Monday for the second time in a matter of months to build the properties on the site of the former South Wolds School.

The council-owned 26-acre site, which stands in open countryside near Beverley, has been empty since the school was closed a decade ago on health and safety grounds.

Four years ago the council’s planning committee refused another developer’s bid to build four luxury houses on the site, and last December the council’s application for two homes was rejected. Its latest proposal is for two homes set in just over eight acres of the site.

The move has drawn criticism from property developer Wayne Low, who says his company offered to buy the school unconditionally. He questions why officers have recommended approval for a scheme which is a departure from local and national planning policy.

Mr Low, who developed The Bay holiday village at Filey and owns Beverley-based Richmond Properties Ltd, said: “This is a resubmission of an application which was determined six months ago and is not really any different.

“The application itself is a departure from the national planning policy framework.

“I’ve offered to buy that property unconditionally for educational purposes on several occasions and nothing has ever been done about it.

“They are trying to raise the value of the land, which is fine in normal circumstances, but should anyone else have applied for two houses, it would not have got recommendation for approval.”

Lord Hotham, whose family owned the land until 1939 when it was compulsorily purchased under the National Camp Schools Act, has also offered to buy the land, clear the buildings and return it to agricultural and forestry use.

Dalton Holme Parish Council said it did not believe the development would contribute to the nearby village of Etton, saying: “There is nothing to suggest that the occupiers of these houses will not keep the large gates proposed firmly closed.”

Etton Parish Council, however, supports the plans.

In a report, East Riding Council’s estates and valuation service says it has openly marketed the school without getting a successful buyer, adding: “The objector had been advised that the council is not able to accept an off-market bid but would be pleased to receive a formal bid when the property is re-marketed.”

In a statement, East Riding Council said it was trying to improve the prospects of a sale by securing planning permission for two homes.

It said the application was different from the one refused last December, with a reduced area of development.

Planning officers had recommended that the development go ahead but since the application was by the council and was contrary to the Development Plan, if the scheme was approved by councillors it would need the ultimate approval of the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

The land was originally used for a camp to allow children to experience the countryside.

In 1952, it was purchased by the local authority as a school for children with learning disabilities.

It made use of the original camp buildings and was renamed Etton Pasture School.

Between the late 1950s and early 1970s the site was redeveloped.

Before the school was closed for good in 2002, 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.