THESE pictures show the “dilapidated” Victorian schoolroom which councillors cleared for demolition.

It’s clearly far from run down – as these youngsters enjoy a session with their Brownies group.

A report from the Ombudsman last week slammed serious maladministration by Kirklees Council which almost resulted in the destruction of the building next to the listed Gomersal Methodist Church in Latham Lane, Gomersal.

During the investigation it emerged that of 32 photographs considered with the planning application in 2006/07, 24 were of a different building. The application was to replace the listed building with four houses.

This week however Clr Adrian Murphy, who was chairman of the planning committee under the then Tory-controlled council, insisted that regardless of what was seen by officers, the committee had considered the right pictures, despite the conclusion of the Ombudsman.

Protestors say they were not allowed to tell the committee that they were looking at pictures of a lift – but the actual building is a single storey.

Jane Yelland used the property to run Brownies meetings and, along with her husband, instigated ombudsman Anne Seex’s involvement.

She said: “We tried so hard to get people to be aware of the true state of affairs long before the decision was taken – but local residents have become so disillusioned with the council’s overall planning policies.

“It’s always difficult to get anyone to stand up and be counted.

“The petition of 235 was significant and still they wouldn’t listen.

“No matter how many times we insisted to the council that the schoolroom did still have listed building rights (simply as part of the curtilage of the listed chapel), they just ignored us.

“It makes such a mockery of the principle of listing any buildings anywhere if you can just let them rot away to save maintenance costs and produce potential profit.”

Conservative Clr Murphy was chairman of the planning committee when the decision was made and this week he insisted that they had considered the right pictures.

He added that the committee, on receiving a recommendation to approve demolition from the planning officers, had not simply rubber stamped the proposal.

He told The Examiner: “We did see the right pictures.

“We went on a site visit and it’s clear that the councillors were talking about the right building.

“I can assure you all the officers recommendations are not written in stone and a small percentage are overturned. We have overturned things because we look at them differently.

“We went with the officers because there were conditions to be put on regarding the materials and design.”

A council spokesman said since the application they had tightened up their procedures and forged stronger links with English Heritage.