CAMPAIGNERS hoping to save a 100-year-old foundation building at a Cleckheaton school, which is due to be demolished in the next two months, had a chance to have their say at a Council meeting.

A group trying to save the original part of the Whitcliffe Mount School building appealed for interested developers to come forward in a last ditch attempt. They have five developers who have expressed an interest in converting the old building into apartments.

The building is currently empty now pupils and staff have moved into a replacement school building on the same site earlier this month.

But developer Laing O’Rourke is scheduled to demolish the building by November when its contract runs out, the full meeting of Kirklees Council heard on Wednesday night.

Councillor David Sheard, leader of the Council, said he was prepared to help facilitate a discussion between the trustees of the school that owned the building, the Education Funding Agency, Laing O’Rourke, petitioners and their developers - but it could not be held financially liable.

He said: “We would facilitate a discussion but we can’t provide the financial guarantee the Education Funding Agency would need if anything interfered with their contract.”

Paul Graves, of the Whitcliffe Petitioning Group, told the meeting that although the Council had never owned the 1910 building, it was the authority’s insistence that the plot it is set to receive in a land swap be “unfettered” by buildings that was driving the demolition.

He told councillors that the value of the land was higher with the historic building than without and that he hoped the Council would take this opportunity ahead of the intended date of the land swap in spring 2018.

Mr Graves told the T&A: “There is a way forward and we hope to enter further discussions. We’ve been left with a glimmer of hope but time is of the essence if we want to save the building.”

The group managed to gather 4,000 signatures and presented a petition to Kirklees Council, leading to this week’s petition debate.

One of the developer’s interested in converting the foundation building is Rajan Gupta, who has already renovated the Pudsey Grangefield School building.

He said: “In my opinion it would be hugely more viable for a developer to purchase the building in its existing state. To demolish this beautiful building and to then sell the land off, would fetch significantly less money.”

He added that he would have no interest in the land as a cleared site, but said: “I would passionately love to preserve the outside facade of this building including the clock tower.”