Free school plans held up as council accused of failing to meet equalities duties

Barnet Council has accepted that plans for a free school will have to go before its planning and environment committee for a second time after the local authority was threatened with judicial review.

The Etz Chaim free school was due to be opened in 2012 on the site of a former garden centre, which was in use as a community centre. Planning permission for the school was granted in July.

However, 32-year-old Daniel Coleman, one of the disabled visitors, applied for a judicial review. He argued that the council had not met its duties under the Equality Act 2010.

A spokesman for Barnet said: “We have recently been made aware of a potential legal challenge to the granting of planning permission to Etz Chaim School. The challenge centres on whether the council had sufficient regard to equalities impacts when considering a planning application for a change of use for the building from a privately owned garden centre to a school.

“This is an emerging area of the law and the council is mindful of the need to avoid unnecessary litigation and the incurring of unnecessary costs. The logical step, if we are to protect the public purse, is for a new application to be made to the planning committee following a clear and demonstrable equalities assessment for the change of use to a school from what has always been a privately owned and run garden centre.”

Coleman told the Barnet Times: “My aim remains to win the site back for all who have used it as an invaluable resource.”

He added: “I have no wish to harm the education of the children. Alternative available sites will guarantee that the school may continue unimpeded elsewhere but without ruining the lives of over 1,000 local elderly and disabled people.”

Adam Dawson, chairman of the governors, described the action as “deeply regrettable”, but told the paper he hoped a sensible resolution could be found.