A DECISION is expected next month on whether a vandal-hit blight on a village can be developed.
Kebbell Development submitted a planning application this summer to redevelop the former St Peter’s School site, in Gainford.
The plans included 57 properties on an estate which would consist of two, three and four-bedroomed houses, three-bedroomed terraced houses and bungalows.
Kebbell owns part of the site with some of the land owned by Ruttle Developments.
The two firms have been unable to come to an agreement on joint plans in the past with Kebbell objecting to previous proposals put forward by Ruttle.
However, Ruttle was given the green light in 2015 to convert the main section of the building into six apartments and demolish another section for ten homes. This came before one of the wings was deliberately set alight in 2016 which meant that part of the building had to be demolished.
Despite backing by county planners, these plans have not materialised.
Meanwhile, Gainford parish councillors were told at their meeting last week that county councillors will decide on Kebbell’s scheme at a meeting expected to take place on December.
Parish clerk Martin Clark said: “The decision is more likely to be made by councillors on a committee than by officers.”
He made the statement after two residents asked when something would be done to finally develop the building.
One villager, who refused to give his name and described himself as “Mr X”, said: “I’m concerned about St Peter’s. The site needs building on – we need more houses and affordable homes to bring more people to the village and stop other villages dying.”
Cllr Sarah Hannan said: “There is a significant amount of affordable housing and bungalows being planned. It’s a good plan – it’s not just executive four bedroom houses like other proposals have been.”
Cllr Simon Plattern said that St Peter’s wasn’t a listed building but developers must project the historic frontage. He explained that any scheme would retain this, with the rear unaffected by these rules.
“They must keep the front – the rest can go,” he said.
An agreement is unlikely to be reached between the two owners of the site until a decision on the planning application has been made, the meeting heard. Built in 1899, St Peter’s School was initially an orphanage and then became a residential school until it closed in 1983. In 1986, it became a nursing home but this closed in 1998.
