THE newly formed Supreme Court has "ruled in favour" of a girls' school battling against plans to rebuild the neighbouring boys' school.

Governors at Langley Park School for Girls decided to appeal a planning application by Langley Park School for Boys after Bromley Council gave the green light to a complete rebuild of the boys' school last summmer.

The girls' school was initially unsuccessful at the High Court, but continued their fight at Court of Appeal.

They were rewarded in July when judges agreed that Bromley Council should not have agreed to the application for legal reasons.

Both schools share the same patch of Metropolitan Open Lane in Hawksbrook Lane.

Teachers and governors at Langley Park School for Girls claimed the £38m plans would have had a detrimental impact on their facilities and surrounding fields.

However, following the Court of Appeal ruling, Bromley Council decided to try and take the case to the Supreme Court.

But the local authority was left disappointed last week when their application to appeal was turned down.

A statement on the Langley Park School for Girls website reads: “The Supreme Court ruled in our favour with regard to the appeal against Langley Park Boys’ School first planning application.

“Therefore, we have been supported in our decision to appeal against their initial development plans , with the costs we incurred to be reimbursed by Bromley [Council].”

Second application

Last week, a second set of plans to rebuild Langley Park School for Boys were approved by councillors - despite continuing objections from the girls' school.

Head teacher at the girls' school, Jan Sage, told the planning committee her school had already spent around £170,000 fighting the application.

A Bromley Council spokesman said: "We are very disappointed that the Supreme Court has turned down our application to appeal the Court of Appeal's ruling.

"However, a new planning application for Langley Park School for Boys is going before the Secretary of State and the Mayor of London after it was approved by Bromley Council’s development control committee on November 3.

"We are confident that this provides a clear way forward for this significant investment that will benefit not just the school itself but also the wider community through the proposed state-of-the-art performance hall."