A trial run planning application for the rebuilding of Ilkley Grammar School on farmland off Wheatley Lane will be scrutinised by Ilkley Parish Council.

The local council’s plans committee, a statutory consultee in planning process, is expecting to debate the current ‘scoping’ application for the school rebuild, and could hold a special meeting to discuss the plan in January.

The parish council is expected to open the debate about the school debate at its meeting at Ilkley Town Hall on Monday. But planning documents have yet to be released, and the committee is expected to simply make note of the plans and defer the issue to a later meeting.

Plans committee chairman Andrew McKie told the Gazette this week that the parish council would be reviewing the Ilkley Grammar School planning application over the Christmas period and the item would be discussed early in January.

Councillor McKie said: “I’d also like to encourage all interested parties to express either their support for, or objections against, the application over the forthcoming weeks too, so that the committee can gain a good feel for the balance of opinion.”

The parish council’s plans committee is considering holding a special meeting to discuss the Grammar School plans. The parish council previously set aside a meeting to discuss the Tesco planning applications, to enable councillors to gauge public feeling and make sure all the issues associated with the plans were scrutinised in depth.

A planning application for the school rebuild was submitted to Bradford Council planners earlier this year, but was never validated, and sent back to the applicant, with a request for more detailed information.

Planners asked for a more detailed environmental impact assessment for the plan. The scoping planning application for the school rebuild was submitted to Bradford Council last month.

The Building Schools for the Future project director recently told the Gazette the environmental impact assessment on the site was expected ‘by the end of December’ and plans would be made public at this stage.

Those being the BSF project still hope to start building work in 2011, and have the school built by 2013. The rebuild would increase the school’s student capacity from 1,400 to 1,900.