Ref. 12358/2KENNET District Council's insistence on its 50-50 ratio of affordable houses to commercial market houses is putting in jeopardy plans to build a new school in Rowde, say school governors.

The governors of Rowde CofE Primary School have been trying for two years to finance building a new school on land owned by Wiltshire County Council on the Devizes edge of the village.

They approached eight national building developers to assist them in building homes on the present school site to finance the £1.75 million cost of erecting the new purpose-built school.

They reached agreement with Persimmon Homes, which undertook to find a builder for the school in return for permission to build 24 homes on the current school site, which is cramped but has no room for further expansion.

But at a meeting with officers from Kennet District Council in October they were in for a shock. Though Persimmon had told them that there would be no obligation to provide social housing on sites of fewer than 25 homes, Kennet said that any new development would need to provide as many affordable homes as it was building commercial market homes.

Headteacher David Ball said: "Instead of building 24 homes, we are now obliged to build 48. Persimmon will not be able to finance the new school with fewer than 24 open market homes on the site, so we were forced to go back to Wiltshire County Council and ask their permission to use an acre of the new school site to build the social houses.

"Persimmon are already putting themselves out over this scheme. They will not be able to build any houses until the new school is open, and the have incurred a lot of extra expenses because of the number of planning alterations required by Kennet."

Chairman of governors Mandy Housby is furious over Kennet's intransigence. She said: "The community gain from this development is the new school, where everyone in the village will have access to the hall, the sports facilities and the IT suite.

"Rowde already has more social housing than it needs. With the redevelopment of Cromwell House and the other developments either taking place now or in the pipeline, there will be 80 new houses in the village, if you include the 24 Kennet is insisting we build.

"It wouldn't be so bad if the criteria were being applied across the board, but there are developments elsewhere in Devizes where no social housing is being demanded."

Coun Janet Giles, one of the two district council members for Rowde and Bromham, has called for a housing needs survey in the village, to see if 24 more affordable homes are required.

She said: "I would much prefer to see 12 affordable homes and leave room for a play area and public open space."

The other Rowde and Bromham member, Coun Philip Brown, said: "I very much support Kennet's policy to provide affordable homes but if the housing needs survey finds that we could do with 12, I am happy with that.

"But there are families in the village who need the houses, so I'm afraid the governors will have to accept that."

Meanwhile, support for the new school building is by no means universal. Residents of Springfield Road are against more homes in the area, concerned particularly about the increase in traffic through their estate, as access to the proposed houses is not being allowed from Marsh Lane.

The parish council is due to discuss the plans at its next meeting on March 11, when it is thought many villagers will attend.

Mrs Housby has written to parish councillors, saying: "This project offers the village and its future generations a new school building to be proud of, a school which will offer enhanced facilities for the community's use and help to ensure that our children get a first-class education in a first-class new school."