What is happening at Spring Hall: Halifax open space meant for public will stay fenced off as school given permission for extension despite concerns
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
Ravenscliffe High School and Sports College has had a retrospective application for the building – which is already in place at Spring Hall off Huddersfield Road – approved.
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Hide AdThe school says it needs extra teaching space and the application was to use the temporary building for two years.
But councillors heard there were concerns about land meant for the public’s recreational use being fenced off because of the school using the building.
Councillor Sue Holdsworth (Lib Dem, Greetland and Stainland), proposing the plans be refused, said she was concerned that with the lack of special educational need and disabilities (SEND) places in Calderdale, the school might reapply to extend using the building again in two years’ time.
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Hide AdShe said: “It’s a complete encroachment on recreational use – they have already fenced off a large part of Spring Hall that used to have a lot of facilities used by local people.”
Objecting to the proposal, resident Reid Anderson said the council’s own conservation officer said the building would have a negative effect through poor design and, as it was already in position, “it is possible to see how hideous it is – no member of this committee would want it at the bottom of their garden".
He told councillors the whole of the Spring Hall estate was shown in the council’s Local Plan is shown as an area of protected open space for use for sport and recreation.
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Hide Ad“In recent year,s half of the estate has been lost to the general public – it is sealed off by a wire fence around the Ravenscliffe site and the Halifax Harriers running track,” he said.
National and local planning policies gave protection to conservation areas, heritage assets and open space areas like this one, although school buildings could be located on other land, he argued.
Councillor Mike Barnes (Lab, Skircoat), writing as ward councillor, objected and said pressure on school places should not mean public use of the land should be contravened.
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Hide AdHowever Coun Silvia Dacre (Lab, Todmorden) and Coun Katie Kimber (Lab, Luddenden Foot) were concerned that refusing permission would mean the building having to go.
Councillor Kimber, while expressing disappointment, said that, as the council’s legal officers had told councillors, they also had duties around lack of opportunities for children and it raised the question where the children would go if the building had to be removed.
Their amendment – to approve the plans – led to a split vote.
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Hide AdCalderdale Council’s planning committee chair, Coun Colin Hutchinson, whose Skircoat ward includes the site, had supported Coun Sue Holdsworth’s recommendation that the plans be refused permission, against planning officers’ recommendation.
But protocol is that the committee chair’s casting vote, in event of a tied vote, is usually cast in line with officers’ recommendation and he did this after some thought, saying on balance the education use carried most weight but stressing the word “temporary”.
“I will be very, very unhappy to see this extended beyond the temporary period,” he said.
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