February 8, 2001 17:00: ON Monday Wycombe District Council's planning environment and transportation committee voted to refuse planning permission for new development on green belt land at Penn School.

The decision threatens the future of the school and will hit community life say backers of the plan.

The expertise of eight qualified and experienced teachers will be lost to deaf and disabled children if Penn School closes, says the head Alan Jones.

"You can't afford to lose this level of ability," he said.

Mr Jones, who has been teaching at the school since 1975, said if children could not go to Penn, they would have to board at schools as far away as Margate, Derby or Exeter.

And he pointed out that if the school closed, 41 people working there full or part-time and living locally would lose their jobs.

The effect on Penn itself is a point being forcibly made by supporters of the plan, which would retain the school and build two five-bedroomed houses, an old people's complex, a surgery, offices for the school, and a pharmacy and post office, in the 21 acres of green belt grounds.

Steve Powell, chief executive of Sign, the Penn-based charity which wants to buy the school, said chairman Chris Oliver, who gave his casting vote against the scheme, had effectively killed the community of Penn.

GPs at Penn Surgery say without new premises they may have to close down in 2004.

Wendy Green, the practice manager, said the surgery didn't fit NHS requirements that consulting rooms should be on the ground floor, or served by a lift.

The doctors have been looking for new premises for about 15 years. She said there was no parking and patients had to leave their cars at the side of the road.

With 5,500 patients and 2.5 doctors the practice is bursting at the seams and on Tuesday the GPs met and decided to close their lists to new patients.

The Penn Surgery is a branch of the Simpson Centre in Beaconsfield, but that can't take more patients.

In the other direction the nearest surgery is at Hazlemere which is also full.

Local district councillor Betty Lay (Con, Tylers Green) is supporting the plan.

She said: "Have no doubt that if the charity can't purchase the school, Camden (which owns the school) will place 21 acres of green belt on the open market."

Tylers Green resident Richard Gunner said planning committee chairman Chris Oliver should not have chaired the meeting because he had opposed the scheme twice before.

"The school is a local asset which is a benefit to society as a whole," he said.

Mr Powell said Sign would support the school for five years and was not in it for the money.

"This is for the community," he said.

He said the pharmacy and post office were losing money and would close without the scheme.

He was critical about advice from district planning officers and the county highways department. Sign had originally wanted social housing, not five-bedroomed houses, on some of the land but had been told by officers that was a "no go".

"The school will close and these children who depend on it for their education will lose out," said Mr Powell.

By.Margaret Smith