Ex-pupils angry as school to be razed

A planning committee of nine members was split over the scheme, with the chairman using his casting vote to allow the plan which will see the former Percy Jackson Grammar School razed.

The building, which now forms part of the Outwood Academy Adwick, in Woodlands, north of Doncaster, will disappear as part of plans to build a new £16m school on the site and do away with old buildings.

Earlier this year, a group of old pupils mounted a demonstration on the site and were joined by local residents, who claim they have not ben adequately consulted on the replacement school project.

But they were asked to leave the site by furious senior staff and decided to make their case at Doncaster Council’s Mansion House when the subject came up for discussion at this month’s planning committee.

Ken Cooke, a spokesman for former Percy Jackson pupils, said the group was unhappy with how they had been treated at the committee, and the controversial Outwood Grange Academies Trust, which runs the school.

Mr Cooke said: “We were railroaded. Doncaster Council and the Outwood Grange Academy Trust have spent thousands of pounds concocting the plan and obviously don’t want to hear objections.

“We are merely amateurs with no budget. Nevertheless, our lobbying shows some result in the divided vote of the committee.

“The applicants appeared to threaten councillors that dissent will delay the construction of a new school. Yet what is a delay, when the survival of a heritage asset is at stake?”

Neighbours who live close to the school in Windmill Balk Lane, Woodlands have also mounted a campaign to stop the replacement school being built.

They claim that Doncaster Council issued a neighbour consultation document on August 30 this year, giving people a deadline of September 6 to submit any observations or objections.

Wendy Bunton, whose house backs onto the school field where the new school will be built, said residents had worries over privacy, traffic congestion, noise, light pollution, litter and the loss of the historic building.

She added that initial plans had shown the new school on a field which did not back onto existing properties and said that the Art Deco building had recently had “vast amounts of taxpayers’ money spent on it” which would be wasted when it was demolished.

Mr Cooke claimed that the democratic process had been abused and that a heritage asset review should be carried out on the building as laid down in Government planning guidance.

He said Doncaster Council’s own design and conservation officer had called for the Percy Jackson building to be retained and added: “Proper local consultation should be conducted and the planning decision should be revisited.”

The Outwood Grange Academies Trust has already faced trouble over the Woodlands school, with a row erupting earlier this year over payments made to it by Doncaster Council.

An investigation revealed that £500,000 of public money had been paid by the authority to the trust after it took the school over when it was branded failing by inspectors.

Nobody from Doncaster Council, or the Outwood Grange Academy Trust was available for comment yesterday.