Decision over 'ornate' school gate row due in Derbyshire

A new timber gate has been put up as the school said finding a replica of the old one would be "prohibitively expensive"

One of the UK's oldest boarding schools tore down a historic "ornate" gate without planning permission.

Ockbrook School, founded in Derbyshire in 1799, replaced the entrance in 2019 with a new timber structure, citing rot that had gone "beyond repair".

Erewash Borough Council officers said the school failed to get permission, and called for a retrospective planning application to be rejected.

A planning committee meeting to decide the issue will be held on 26 May.

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A report by council officers said it learned the gate had been taken down following a complaint, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The officers said the gate was replaced "without obtaining advice" and was "considered to be in stark contrast to national and local planning policy".

"Regardless of the condition of the gate, the applicant should have liaised with the local planning authority and sought appropriate consent," the report said.

Arguing the council "would have resisted the removal of the gate and would have suggested sympathetic repair works", the officers said restoring the old gate was "important to the character of the conservation area and the street scene".

The old school gate was taken down in 2019 because of rot and "deterioration beyond repair"

The school, which charges £3,360 a term for primary school children, £4,435 for those in Years 7-9 and £4,565 for Years 10-13, said building a replica would be "prohibitively expensive".

A report submitted on behalf of the school said they were advised the previous structure "was rotten and was therefore no longer fit for purpose".

"Whilst the loss of a historic feature is regrettable, it was the case that if the gate was beyond repair, the only way of maintaining the same aesthetic would have been to install a replica," they said.

"Aside from [the cost], it would not have had the significance of the original, being a wooden reproduction."

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