Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Objectors angry as school move to old hospital site agreed
THE Steiner School at Chartham has won permission to move to a new site in the village – leaving objectors angry with the city council’s planning committee on Tuesday night.
The approval means it can redevelop its existing site at Garlinge Green with 15 homes to help pay for its conversion of the nearby redundant Oak House hospital building into a new school.
But protesters’ claims that the application was a ‘done deal’ were rejected by members – who insisted the committee was independent and impartial.
All parties agreed the major issues were the proposed traffic access to the new school through the existing housing estate on the former St Augustine’s Hospital site and the building of houses in an area of outstanding natural beauty.
The school submitted separate applications for the scheme, which council officers admitted was ‘finely balanced’ but recommended approval in both cases.
But residents on the estate fear the proposed route to the new school via Candlers Way will cause traffic chaos at peak times and make their lives a misery.
Claire Bonny, secretary of the St Augustine’s Residents’ Association, said: “The planned access is just the cheapest option but has huge negative implications for residents.
“The plans have not been modified as a result of our concerns and the school is running roughshod over the community.”
Proposing the application be approved, committee member Cllr Ashley Clark (Con) said the existing Oak House was a ‘blot on the landscape’ which had become derelict and vandalised.
He said: “The development of the site was always on the cards but I would have thought a school was one of the best options in terms of a neighbour.
“I appreciate it hinges on access but sometimes you have to be courageous and make a decision.”
The application was approved with conditions – including one that the school is only allowed a maximum of 300 pupils.
Members also granted approval for the redevelopment of the existing Steiner School site with 15 new homes in spite of protests from residents that it was in an area of outstanding natural beauty.
Cllr Alec Baldwin said: “Normally an application like this would get short shrift. But there are already buildings on the site and, although I am not entirely comfortable with it, the policy does allow for special circumstances.”
Speaking on behalf of the school, Mick Drury, of architects and town planners BDB Design, said today: “The committee’s decisions will make a profound difference in securing a sustainable future for the school and for its pupils.
“It is a golden opportunity to bring badly vandalised buildings on a brownfield site back into beneficial use and to protect and improve its special environment and ecology.
“It will also mean that the school can become a part of the community in a way that has not been possible in its current more remote location. Included in that will be shared use of a number of its social and sporting facilities and parking for the neighbouring recreation ground.”
Mr Drury said that the aim was to make the existing premises at St Augustine’s secure as quickly as possible and to begin work on the new school during 2013.