A home for four teenagers with severe autism in Sherfield-on-Loddon that residents, parish and borough councillors wanted to shut down is staying open after a successful appeal to the Government.
On Wednesday, August 17, planning inspector David Morgan overturned Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council's decision to refuse retrospective planning permission for Homelands, part of the Loddon School for autistic youngsters. The school, in Wildmoor Lane, had applied for permission to continue providing 24-hour care for the children at the site, which it has been doing since 2004.
But neighbours objected to the plans and complained about noise from the house, items thrown into their gardens and argued the four boys should be housed in the school itself. And they were backed up by Sherfield-on-Loddon Parish Council and the borough council's development control committee, which refused planning permission and gave the school 12 months to shut the house down.
But planning inspector David Morgan said he was unable to detect any noise that could be considered "likely to result in material harm" when he visited Homelands, and was not persuaded by the arguments for closing the site down. Loddon School principal Lyne Young, staff and families celebrated at their annual picnic at nearby Stratfield Saye house on Friday.
She said: "We are very relieved and very excited. We put a lot of hard work into putting our case forward. We were quietly confident but we it was very difficult as we didn't want to get people's hopes up to much.
"We have been looking into another building on site if that's what it needed, but that would have taken a long while. Homelands is very important, as its where children move to practise the skills they need when they leave school. It's a kind of halfway house within the community. We haven't had any reaction yet but we want to try and cultivate links with the local community and be much more proactive.
Lady Antonio Douro, owner of Stratfield Saye House, is also the school's patron and said she was "absolutely thrilled" at the news. "I've always been incredibly impressed to see the young people and how beautifully they're looked after and given their own space to develop," she said. "They undergo an extraordinary transformation and are able to become comfortable in their own skin."
The Loddon School has 180 staff that work with 28 children with severe and complex learning difficulties, aged eight to 19. Joanne Trigell, from Swansea, is the mother of Harry Herbert, 16, one of the autistic boys at Homelands.
She said: "We are really pleased. Harry has come on leaps and bounds. He's not so hard work to take out now and he's a lot calmer, and that is all down to the staff and their hard work. I think Homelands has become a real family for the four boys in there."
Her comments were echoed by Buckskin ward councillor Robert Taylor, a trustee at the school who said the school was a "jewel in the crown" of Basingstoke and Deane with an international reputation. Earlier this month the school was rated as outstanding in every area by Ofsted inspectors.
Cllr Taylor said: "I am delighted that the appeal against the development control committee decision in relation to Homelands has been upheld by the planning inspector. This positive outcome should reflect exactly both the values of tolerance and acceptance in our local community... and the fact that Loddon School's most recent Ofsted inspection gives it an outstanding rating in every single aspect of its work.
"I think Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council should rejoice in the fact that a nationally and internationally acclaimed organsiations, caring for our most vulnerable young people in society is based in our borough. This borough council is seeking the important status of a lead authority in terms of equality and diversity. Here is a golden opportunity to achieve this by supporting this flagship school... rather than place development control obstacles in its path."
Sherfield-on-Loddon borough councillor, Rhydian Vaughan, who is also the chairman of the council's development control committee, told the Observer: "The development control committee always gives its verdict in good faith. That's the point of the committee.
"Because of the nature of the subject, it was a very emotional decision,. Don't forget I'm also the borough councillor for the Loddon School. I think it is to be commended, but this wasn't about Loddon School - this was about the suitability of one of the outhouses in the situation they have it."
