CONTROVERSIAL plans to turn a former school into 13 new homes have been rejected by Forest councillors.

More than 80 objections were received about proposals for the old St White’s Primary buildings beside the new school in Ruspidge, backed by a 52-name petition and two parish councils.

Officers recommended approval of the Gloucestershire County Council plans, but the Forest’s planning committee turn­ed them down after hearing it was “putting children’s lives at risk for profit.”

Opponents said the narrow Buckshaft Road between the old and new school buildings created a dangerous bottleneck at the junction with St White’s Road, and the street was a scene of “mayhem” at drop-off and pick-up times, with “cars mounting the kerb on pavements... thronged with children.”

They claimed the county council had failed to deliver an off-road drop-off point for parents and pupils, as stated in its successful 2014 planning application for the new building.

GCC wanted full planning permission to convert the old building into five homes, and out-

line permission for eight homes across the road on the site of the old canteen beside the new school.

A late amendment to

the scheme also pro-

posed widening Buckshaft Road.

Cinderford Town Council told planners that youngsters’ lives were being put in danger by GCC cashing in on the publically-owned asset.

A statement from council clerk Lynda Thomas said it was “appalling” that GCC had failed to provide off-street parking, as “agreed”, to deal with the traffic “chaos” that already existed outside the school.

“The application for the construction of eight houses, completely takes away the opportunity of GCC providing the off-street parking area as referred to in the current planning permission, and the application for the conversion of the old primary school is not addressing the issue of the narrow road causing a bottle neck at the entrance to Buckshaft Road,” she said.

Ruspidge and Soudley Parish Council backed the drop-off calls, and accused GCC of making a cash grab from existing buildings which “should be used for the benefit of the local community.”

Buckshaft Road resident and parish councillor Nicola Packer told Monday’s (January 15) meeting: “If this application were by a private developer, I believe that Highways would have ob-

jected to it, because the existing traffic problems would be increased by further development.

“The transport statement claims that the

proposed uses would generate less traffic than the old use as a school – as if they are unaware that the school has not gone away, but is in a new building nearby.

“This is the very last opportunity to address the current traffic congestion, which would blight the lives of the new occupants of the proposed development as much as the existing residents in Buckshaft Road and in St Whites Farm estate.

“GCC should provide the off-road set-down and pick-up facility that they promised when they built the new school,” added Cllr Packer, who said she “applauded” the planning committee’s decision to refuse the schemes after the meeting.

Recommending approval of the two plans, Forest planning officer Mark Stringer had said the vacant buildings were “unlikely ever again to function as part of a school” and several which had “the look of 1960s portable classrooms”, were unattractive.

The approved plan for the new school only showed “a pedestrian entrance on Buckshaft Road”, and the county council’s claim that the planning document reference to off-street parking was a “mistake” seemed “reasonable,” he said.

He added: “The development proposal would not have any obvious or substantial negative economic, environmental and social effects,” but acknowledged that the development would remove the possibility of providing off-road parking for the school.