PLANS for a “staggeringly ugly” special needs school on farmland in a North Yorkshire village have been unanimously approved by councillors.

North Yorkshire Council’s strategic planning committee heard children with special educational needs in the former Selby district would continue to face travelling up to four hours a day to the nearest suitable schools in Scarborough or Harrogate if the Department for Education (DfE) proposal didn't get the green light.

In an attempt to lessen the impact of the multi-million pound development off the A63 at Osgodby, near Selby, the committee agreed to impose a list of conditions and requests on the planning consent. These included changes to the colour of the building’s proposed yellow cladding and a request to lower the speed limit outside the school.

However, the meeting heard all the conditions and requests could come to nothing if the DfE said they were unaffordable or highways officers opposed lowering the speed limit.

The school, plans for which have been developed over the last five years after North Yorkshire County Council won a bid for funding, will have capacity for 100 pupils, focusing on those with communication and interaction needs.

With rising numbers of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), the authority estimated that 350 more SEND school places would be needed in North Yorkshire by 2028.

A parent of a SEND pupil explained to the meeting how special needs pupils in the area were travelling almost two hours to school each way daily and the specialist provision would be “hugely welcome”.

One speaker related how the lack of provision had led to a four-year-old facing a 10-hour day to access suitable classes.

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The meeting heard Councilllor Karl Arthur, who represents the area, state while he supported the creation of a SEND school for the former Selby district, the proposed location was wrong as it would be “extremely dangerous” at school run time beside the busy trunk road.

He accused the council and Department of Education of providing parents of prospective pupils, elected community representatives and residents with “a severe lack of information”, which has created an atmosphere of “anxiety and mistrust on all sides against the authority and the DfE”.

Councillors were told Osgoodby Residents Association, which represents about 800 people in the village, believed the council and the DfE had “done their utmost to thwart our endeavours in protecting our village by withholding information and bending the truth”.

Despite a lengthy list of significant concerns, including building on top grade farmland, road safety and neighbouring households having their rural outlook ruined by a large, two-storey, bright yellow building, councillors were told the specialist school was urgently needed.

Comparing the proposed school building to “a pile of bricks with a madras check shirt on top stuck in the open countryside”, Councillor Andrew Lee said the residents were having “an eyesore, a monstrosity” pushed upon them.

Councillor Andy Brown agreed the design was “staggeringly ugly” and numerous other concerns raised, the benefits of having a SEND school in the area were “massive”, and suggested imposing a string of requirements on the developer to lessen its negative impacts.