ABOUT 20 estate workers at Queen Ethelburga’s College have been told they are to lose their jobs after building work on new facilities was halted.

The Press has obtained a letter handed out to employees of Thorpe Underwood Services Ltd which says the current workforce level is no longer required and it is necessary to “restructure the Estates Department”.

One member of staff, who asked to remain anonymous, said staff had been offered a week’s wages for every year of employment and told they must leave the site for the final time tomorrow.

The letter says: “As you will be aware, works on the estate have ceased and we no longer require the level of workforce we currently retain, it is therefore necessary to restructure the department.”

Earlier this year it was revealed the independent co-educational school, near Green Hammerton, was suspected of 16 breaches of planning controls over the construction of a range of new buildings, including offices and residential accommodation, a new medical centre, a steel-framed stage, extensions to an equestrian centre, a wall to a “secret garden”, pond, fountain and horse sculptures.

Protests from nearby residents brought an apology from the school and building work was halted and fresh planning applications submitted. One employee who received the bad news said: “All the estate staff have got redundancy letters.

“They say they are making the staff redundant because the new building work has stopped – but the staff were there before the new buildings were begun.”

It is believed about 19 staff received the letter at a meeting.

Despite repeated calls from The Press to the estate department at Thorpe Underwood, there has, so far, been no comment on the redundancies. Queen Ethelburga’s College itself declined to comment on the situation.

Harrogate Borough Council said it had not issued stop notices in respect of the building work, but confirmed that 19 planning applications from Queen Ethelburga’s would come before the planning committee when it met on November 11.