Battle to save Garway's old school from demolition fails

SAVE Britain’s Heritage took their battle to save the old school in Garway to the Court of Appeal after the decision by Herefordshire Council in April 2022 to allow its demolition.

But, a judgement issued on June 23 reveals, their fight has now failed, with the court finding against their legal objections.

The school was purchased by applicant Mr Davies in 1980 and used as agricultural and commercial workshops until 2002, after which it remained empty and was vandalised, the judgement said. 

Planning permission had previously been granted in 2013 for the conversion of the school rooms to two dwellings but had expired.

"This handsome Victorian building, which already has planning permission for conversion into flats, is now set to be needlessly demolished," a SAVE campaign spokesperson said.

SAVE and Garway locals had fought the proposals at the planning application stage and doggedly followed the case through the High Court and Court of Appeal.

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"It’s yet another example of buildings that are important to local communities and attractive features of towns and villages being wastefully lost under so-called ‘permitted development’ rights – a planning loophole which allows owners to side-step normal planning controls," said the spokesperson.

In order for the demolition of a building to be allowed under PDR, which bypasses the need for full planning permission, a building must not have been rendered unsafe or uninhabitable as a result of the owner's own neglect.

SAVE's view is that the council did not apply the correct test when considering whether the PDR right to demolition applied to Garway School, and the campaign launched Judicial Review proceedings, arguing that the council had not properly assessed whether the school was unsafe or uninhabitable.

But, Lord Justice Lewis found: "The reasoning on which the challenged decision was based did correspond to an accurate understanding of the critical provision.

"The officer applied his mind to the right question, performed the necessary exercise of evaluative judgment, and did so lawfully."

Designed in a decorative Gothic style by local architect E.H. Lingen Barker, the school was completed in 1877, and opened in 1878 with 50 schoolchildren.

Garway Old School was originally built as a board school, consisting of a schoolhouse with an adjoining residence for the headteacher.

Most board schools built at the time were concentrated in large cities where education provision was worse, which makes it a rare example for such a small, rural village, SAVE said.

A previous bid had been made to list the building, but Historic England ultimately decided this, despite emphasising the quality of the structure as being of high local historic and architectural interest.