Sale of this Yorkshire Dales village school; Church must think again – Stephen Stubbs

The powerful voices of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Diocesan Bishop were loud and unequivocal – in perfect harmony with our aims of keeping and attracting young families to our threatened community.

What we didn’t realise was that lawyers and number-crunchers were focused purely on the bottom line – a cool £185,000 profit from a private developer. I am keen to know why the Church insists on putting maximum profit above community value in the northernmost corner of the Yorkshire Dales. Even the local MP, Rishi Sunak, has also asked the PCC to explore every avenue available to reconsider our offer afresh.

Arkengarthdale School was bought for £325 in 1933 for the benefit of parishioners and holds a special place in the hearts of many. It was a community hall hosting a variety of events including domino and whist drives as well as children’s parties – it was the social media hub of its time where people picked up all the gossip.

Four generations of my family were taught there – my grandfather, who owned the village shop and had the first bus in the Dale, my father, myself, my three daughters and son.

The new school building was paid for during the Great Depression by money raised locally and its pupil numbers grew to around 50 when evacuee families were relocated here during the Second World War.

But the school was forced to close last year with just five children on the register, bringing a sad end to 360 years of education in the dale.

In my schooldays this small community was served by two shops, two pubs, a post office, a village institute, church, chapel and the school. Only the church and two pubs remain.

I now chair The Upper Dales Community Land Trust, a not-for-profit organisation striving to provide homes for local families otherwise priced out of the market. We had the school independently valued at £150,000 and persuaded Richmondshire District Council to pledge the money from its affordable housing fund.

We were advised that as a company with charitable objectives it could be possible for the Swaledale with Arkengarthdale Parochial Church Council to sell to us rather than the highest bidder.

We made the offer seven weeks before decision day and were expecting some kind of response. There was an acknowledgement from the estate agent, but no communication from the Church to explain we needed to register as a charity for our offer to stand a chance, something we could have done in as little as two months.

The only presentation to the crucial PCC meeting was from its vice chair, instructing members they were bound by law to accept the highest offer.

I’m led to believe not all PCC members supported the decision and I wonder if they, and possibly others, felt forced to vote against their consciences for fear of acting illegally.

I have a deep sympathy for those PCC members who wanted to accept our offer and great respect for the Church in our communities. It’s just that, with my Christian values, I can’t understand how the Church is not supporting a small group of volunteers on the biggest issue for a sustainable future in our Dale.

If the Church, as the country’s 13th largest landowner, is serious about wanting to help provide affordable homes, why did it not show benevolence and ask its lawyers to help steer our bid through instead of blocking it?

The Most Reverend Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, has set up a commission examining the church’s role in housing and the community which stated at its launch last year: “We have land and resource that can be used to help meet the need for more affordable housing.”

His office have informed us he is powerless to act in this case and swiftly batted it into the court of the Right Reverend Nick Baines, Bishop of Leeds, who oversees the Dales.

He told the House of Lords in April 2016: “My diocese covers vast and diverse rural areas. The issue that is constantly raised by those who live there is affordable housing for their children.

“We too often use the language of protection or preservation when we should be talking about development and creating the future. If we end up with small rural communities without young people in them, which in some cases is what is happening, we will have a problem 20,30, 40 or 50 years down the line.”

The problem is not decades down the line but presents an immediate existential threat to our community. Those handling the sale probably thought: “It’s a small dale, nobody’s heard of it, nobody will fight and we’ll just push it through.” They have underestimated the strength of feeling of local people who think they’ve been dealt an injustice.

Unless they can offer a convincing moral argument, the sour notes from this sorry affair will resonate through Arkengarthdale and beyond for years to come.

Stephen Stubbs is Chairman of The Upper Dales Community Land Trust.

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James Mitchinson