Green campaigners are calling for plans to turn Kneller Hall – former home to the Royal Military School of Music – into a private secondary school to be thrown out.

The London branch of the CPRE countryside charity says the scheme would involve reneging on previous promises from the Council that would see much of the 30-acre site turned into a public park.

The organisation is unhappy that the plan for the school would see the green space surrounding the school turned into sports fields, which would primarily be used by private school pupils.

Aerial view of the 30-acre site (Credit Richmond Borough Council)

A planning application to turn the magnificent Grade II listed building into a school has been lodged with Richmond Council by the Dukes Education Trust.

The Trust currently operates Radnor House School, in Cross Deep, Twickenham, and it envisages that Kneller Hall would become a private Secondary school for around 1,100 pupils.

A Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) produced by the Council in 2020 outlined a vision for the Kneller Hall site that included the creation of a public park, along with some housing.

Grounds would provide new sports pitches rather than a public park (Credit Dukes Education Trust)

It stated: ""Kneller Hall will lie at the heart of the Whitton community. New homes, employment and community uses will be provided and a new public park will be created, as an area which is valued by the local community.

"A distinctive, accessible and high quality 'quarter' set within a mature landscape will be developed and the Grade II listed Hall will have a viable long-term use, reflecting its heritage significance and cultural legacy."

It was suggested that the Hall might be converted into a hotel or developed for housing with part of the land given over to the building of a number of affordable homes.

How the new sports pitches and pavilion could look (Credit Dukes Education Trust)

The Dukes Education Trust has indicated that it would be willing to allow its sports fields and facilities to be used by community groups.

A number of these groups are publicly supporting the planning application, including Whitton Lions rugby club, Whitton Park Sports Association and Whitton Tennis Club. There have been suggestions they would like the grounds to have floodlights to extend their use for sports in the winter.

In a letter objecting to the scheme, John Sadler, who is the Campaigns Officer for CPRE London, writes: "We strongly urge the Council to reject the application."

He states: "We are writing to object to the above application on the following basis:

• The public was promised a major new public park and it is entirely wrong that the space should be taken for the benefit of a very few people who will attend the private school, in particular because this is an area of deficiency.

• The application does not respect the provisions of the agreed Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) for the site to provide a major new public park for the local community.

• This area of the borough is currently deficient in high quality, publicly accessible green space. At a time when many Londoners are struggling financially, the creation of a new park with unfettered public access would provide free space for residents to exercise and socialise and children to play, regardless of their background or income."

He adds: "The new park would have obvious benefits for the local community's health and mental wellbeing and could create volunteering opportunities and the formation of neighbourhood friends' groups to protect and improve this unique green space. If the current proposal is approved, it would be extremely difficult to create a park of this size, in this area, ever again."

New teaching block would be built on the site (Credit Dukes Education Trust)

The CPRE is also concerned about the amount of traffic created by the school scheme.

Mr Sadler adds: "No accommodation should be made for parents to drop children at school: there should be a school bus and children attending the school should be required to use it."

Consideration of the planning application, which also includes the construction of a new teaching block, sports hall and swimming pool, has taken longer than originally anticipated. As a result, the school has pushed back the official opening from September until 2024.