No decision on Beech Lodge School until after EU referendum

A decision on Beech Lodge School’s plans for a new campus outside Maidenhead looks set to be deferred until after the EU referendum.

The school, currently based in Honey Lane, Hurley, has been waiting to hear the outcome of an inquiry into the application held in January.

A determination had been expected on Monday, but the deadline passed without judgement being revealed.

In a statement, a spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said: “We are still considering this case.

“A decision will be made in due course.”

Yesterday, the Planning Inspectorate issued a clarification, saying a report from the inquiry had been passed to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, but a final decision was unlikely to be issued before the vote, on Thursday, June 23, due to the purdah period.

Beech Lodge School opened in 2013, to teach vulnerable children who, although not deemed as having ‘special needs’, have struggled to adapt to mainstream education for a variety of reasons.

In October 2014, plans for a new campus on eight acres of Stubbings land, north of Maidenhead Thicket, with space for almost 100 pupils, were approved by the Royal Borough.

However, by March, the application had been called in by the Planning Inspectorate after an appeal was lodged by Burchetts Green Village Association and Bisham Parish Council.