A PLANNING application for the new activity hall at Rowdeford special school near Devizes has been submitted nearly two years after an astonishing £30,000 was raised at a fire walk in the grounds.

The delay in preparing the plans has been put at the door of the National Lottery's New Opportunities Fund, which required specific details of the plans for the scheme before it would confirm a grant.

Mike Bowden, chairman of the Rowdeford Charity Trust, which has been heading the fundraising effort, said: "We have had meetings nearly every two weeks since the fire walk with architects, quantity surveyors and so forth to make sure the plans were exactly what the fund was looking for.

"Unfortunately, that is the time it takes for these things.

"But now all the funding is in place and I am confident the new hall will be ready for our pupils in September of next year."

It is hoped that work will start on the project in September and be completed next June, ready for pupils starting the new school year in September 2006.

Currently, the 104 pupils with special educational needs have to travel to the Christie Miller sports centre in Melksham to get their weekly physical education.

The new hall will not only provide sports facilities for the pupils, but will be available to the local community as well.

The estimated £500,000 for the project includes £339,482 from the New Opportunities Fund, which was announced a year ago. There is also money coming from Wiltshire County Council's education department and £50,000 from the Government's Seed Challenge, which will match £50,000 raised by the school, most of which came from the fire walk.

The hall is being designed by local architect George Batterham, who designed the school's Prospect Centre for children with autistic spectrum disorder, which is to be upgraded as well. Currently housed in two double mobile classrooms, it will soon be in a brick building on the site.

The local education authority is arranging the finance for this part of the project.

Mr Bowden said: "We will become a centre of excellence for the teaching of autistic children."

Also on the cards is the renovation of a listed coach house on the grounds of the former stately home. It is hoped it will become a centre for performing arts and the present assembly hall will be demolished to provide more playground space.

But this is likely to cost up to £500,000 and the Rowdeford Charity Trust is starting to look at sources of finance for the work.

The fire walk that raised so much towards the school's target took place on June 19 2003, when chairman of governors Rosie Berry, the then headteacher Glen Darnell, headteacher of Rowde Primary David Ball and Devizes School head Malcolm Irons were among those walking barefoot over red hot cinders.

Mrs Berry, who is retiring as chairman of governors in July, raised nearly £5,000 in sponsorship.

The Rowdeford Charity Trust has also managed to bring the walled garden back into use as a teaching facility and has created a woodland walk suitable for wheelchair access.

Mr Darnell, who was credited with bringing the school out of special measures after a failed Ofsted inspection in 1996, resigned his post as the result of a stress-related illness in February last year.