Fury at ‘in the dark’ decision on Grasmere school (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Fury at ‘in the dark’ decision on Grasmere school

4:55pm Thursday 4th February 2010 in

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SUPPORTERS of bold new plans to make a Lake District school the hub of the local community have accused parish councillors of “doing democracy in the dark.”

There is anger in Grasmere that members of Lakes Parish Council met behind closed doors before recommending to the Lake District National Park Authority that futuristic plans for the village school be refused.

The plans for the new school feature two egg-shaped classrooms – designed using boat-building principles – and a block of housing offices and meeting rooms. The new building would also incorporate an integrated post office, tourist information centre and doctors’ surgery as well as a community space for plays, exhibitions and meetings.

The proposals were rejected at a parish council meeting last Wednesday when councillors voted six to one to recommend refusal. Grounds for rejection included the building’s design and its siting in a sensitive part of Grasmere’s Conservation Area.

But parish council clerk Michael Johnson confirmed that a provisional decision to recommend refusal had been made two days earlier following a site visit when councillors convened a meeting in the Grasmere Garden Centre.

Members of the public had been allowed to make representations at the planning meeting but it was claimed that councillors did not engage with supporters of the plan.

“I am shocked by the way the parish council has approached its consideration of the planning application,” claimed Grasmere resident Martin Campbell. “They conducted a site visit on Monday and had a subsequent meeting to discuss the plans behind closed doors. Surely this is not local democracy in action, this is democracy in darkness.”

Grasmere school governors, who are applying to LDNPA to build the school, were represented by chairman the Rev Cameron Butland at the planning meeting.

He said he was disappointed the council had not taken into account his views or those of the 27 members of the public who went to the meeting in support of the plans.

“Nothing that the public said was mentioned or discussed, they just voted in favour to refuse.

“There was no conversation and no reference back to the points that I made or that anybody else made.

“I understand a decision and discussion had gone on outside the public forum,” he added.

Professor David Jackman, of Grasmere, said: “Why does the ‘no change’ lobby always have to get its way? The meeting failed to allow an open and informed discussion of this exciting proposal.”

Mr Johnson said a provisional decision had been made on Monday following the site visit due to time constraints imposed by the LDNPA.

“We adjourned to the garden centre for a coffee and then everybody had a meeting and anybody could have come and listened,” he said. “It wasn’t a formal meeting of the parish council but it was open and heard in public. There was nothing secret about it at all.

“LDNPA wanted to know what we thought and in this case we were put under a tight deadline.

“Their site visit was planned for the morning of January 27 and so that the parish chairman could go to the meeting and give advice it was agreed that a provisional decision would be made on the 25th.”