FURIOUS parish councillors criticised the partial demolition of a school dating back more than 100 years.

It came as developers applied for retrospective planning permission to knock down part of the old Clifton Street School.

In February, demolition workers took down part of the southern wing of the school, which sits at the junction of Radnor Street and Clifton Street off Kingshill Road. Developers say that it is not suited to conversion to flats and plan to replace it with a new build element.

But the demolition works went ahead without planning permission. In documents lodged with borough council planners, agents DPDS Consulting said: “The decision was taken to demolish this part of the existing structure on the mistaken assumption that no permission was required for partial demolition of the building.”

At a heated meeting of South Swindon Parish Council’s planning committee, councillors suggested that the demolished part of the 120-year-old school should be rebuilt.

Coun Nick Burns-Howell said: “That would be a fair response to this reckless act.” Coun John Short joked: “If the developer came across my desk I’d kick him down the road.If they don’t know how to rebuild it I’ll show them.”

Paul Dixon, parish councillor for Eastcott, asked the committee to express concern about the way the developer had approached the demolition: “They shouldn’t have started bringing it down without planning permission and some plan about what they want to do.

“Local residents have been in touch with a number of councillors expressing concern about whether the building could have been preserved if they hadn’t gone about what they’d done in the way they’d done it.”

Coun Burns-Howell was keen that no precedent was set: “We should be encouraging the borough’s planning authority to sanction the development to ensure that this is not a type of development that pops up across Swindon.

“We’re lucky enough across Swindon to have some beautiful heritage assets. This school is one of them.

“We can’t have developers going around attacking our heritage in this way and getting away with it.”

The committee voted to call the decision in to the borough planning committee.

Responding, a DPDS spokesman said on behalf of the developer: “The overall project is the conversion of the former school buildings to residential units for which the necessary approvals have already been given. The decision was taken to demolish this part of the existing structure on the mistaken assumption that no permission was required for partial demolition of the building. When the Council drew attention to the need for planning permission the developer immediately ceased the partial demolition work and made the formal application.

"He has offered, on completion of the remaining works, to make good the site and effect a temporary finish to the remaining gable wall by rendering it in a colour to be agreed with the Council pending agreement over a replacement new residential scheme. Our client is currently liaising with the council to resolve the matter and until this is agreed it would be inappropriate to make any further comment.”