The fight to save a Victorian school from demolition continues with the final decision delayed due to campaigners forcing a Welsh Government debate about its listed status.
The final decision on the future of the former Cowbridge Intermediate School for Girls has been put on hold for a week due to local people's efforts to secure the future of the distinctive building in the Vale of Glamorgan town.
It comes as an alternative plan has been unveiled by a heritage charity to turn the building into flats rather than demolish it.
Members will now have the opportunity to intervene in the long-running saga and debate the case for listing the school, which is thought to be Wales' first purpose-built girls' school following the pioneering Welsh Education Act of 1889.
READ MORE: Fury over plans to demolish 100-year-old school building
The debate in the Senedd in Cardiff Bay on Wednesday, February 16 has been triggered by a petition organised by local campaign group Save Cowbridge Girls' School, calling for preservation of the historic school building by listing it.
The petition objecting to demolition was launched in May 2020 by concerned local residents and drew 5541 signatures in just six weeks, 541 more than the required threshold to trigger the debate.
The announcement of this debate means that the determination of the current planning application to demolish the school, which was due to be decided by the planning committee on the same day, has been delayed until Wednesday, March 2.
Heritage and conservation charities Save Britain's Heritage and The Victorian Society have been strongly campaigning for years to save the former school, listed as one of the UK's most endangered historic buildings.
Save Britain's Heritage state that local housing association Hafod successfully bidded to purchase the site in 2018 and has since applied for planning permission to bulldoze and replace the historic but unlisted school with 30 flats and four houses.
The charity says that despite this clear threat and calls from multiple heritage experts, Wales' heritage advisory body Cadw has repeatedly refused to list the building, stating that better examples of the period exist.
Heritage expert Dr Robert Scourfield in his submission to Cadw to list the school, says: "Only five comparable (of some 95 in total) schools are listed across Wales. A survey of them all confirms that Cowbridge survives to an equivalent degree to some and to a better degree than others."
Save Britain's Heritage has just announced a proposed alternative scheme for the site that the charity says can save the building and still provide 'an attractive and spacious mix of housing that can conform with the council's local development plan'.
Within the large Victorian school building, the Save Britain's Heritage scheme would create 23 apartments.
On the adjacent land the charity proposes 12 new apartments and two new houses. In the plans, the new homes are laid out around two separate courtyards to create an intimate village feel.
Marcus Binney, executive president of Save Britain's Heritage, says: "It is telling that so many local people feel so strongly about this important Glamorgan landmark.
"Boarded up windows and a general state of neglect conceal just how handsome this building will look if cleaned up and brought back into use.
"Our scheme is designed to meet the strong call from local people for the school to be restored and retrofitted, providing an attractive mix of houses and apartments for local people and to provide a fair return on the property to the charity which owns it."
Architect of the alternative plans for the building, Philip Tilbury, says: "The configuration of the school interior means that the new apartments proposed inside the building under the Save Britain's Heritage scheme will have much more variety, character and a better outlook than those proposed under Hafod's plans".
Tudur Davies, of local campaign group Save Cowbridge Girls' School, says: "We welcome these plans which show, given some imagination and innovation, the old girls school can once again be brought to life.
"They clearly demonstrate that it is possible to provide much needed housing on this site without bulldozing our history.
"These attractive designs rightly allow the school to stand proud as a testament to the significant contribution it played in paving the way for equal opportunities in the education of girls."
The building opened in September 1896 and extended in 1909 and is said to be the first all-girls school to be built in Wales following the pioneering Welsh Education Act of 1889 and one of only two in Vale of Glamorgan.
More recently it had been used as the sixth form for Cowbridge Comprehensive until the school moved in 2010 and the building has been empty ever since.
A spokeswoman for the residents of Aberthin Road and Millfield Drive told WalesOnline in 2019: "The building has historic value for Cowbridge, it's part of the make-up of Cowbridge, it's part of the character of Cowbridge.
"This proposed development breaches so many of the planning policies. It doesn't provide a nice living environment for those people they are proposing to live there.
"We're not opposed to the redevelopment of the site and we would welcome more social housing in Cowbridge. We need more of that in Cowbridge. It's the size and scale of it and how it's completely not in keeping with the character of Cowbridge." Find out more about that here.
In its planning application, Hafod Housing Association says the development would be "sensitively designed", and "improve the streetscene" of the area "by redeveloping a vacant and derelict building".
The housing association says the development would "provide range and choice of much needed affordable housing and promote access to and use of existing services and facilities in the surrounding area".
According to Save Britain's Heritage, Hafod Housing Association's plans state that 'though conversion is possible, it would result in the provision of very few dwellings'.
The charity believes that their alternative scheme for retaining the school buildings shows how it is possible to convert them and deliver more housing than currently proposed through demolishing it.
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