Date set for Dyson school inquiry

Sir James criticised the Environment Agency for forcing a planning inquiry

A date has been set for a public inquiry into plans by Sir James Dyson to build a school of design in Bath.

The vacuum cleaner tycoon has council support to place the college at the old Stothert and Pitt crane plant site.

But the Environment Agency raised concerns about flooding, forcing a planning inquiry which is now scheduled to start on 6 January.

Last month Sir James said the agency had displayed the "worst side of quango bureaucracy" by delaying his plans.

The Wiltshire-based inventor wants to construct a pioneering engineering school at the site off Lower Bristol Road, now called South Quays.

The college would be a state school for 2,500 youngsters aged 14 to 18, with half the estimated �22m costs coming from the James Dyson Foundation.

But the site is just a few metres from the River Avon, which the Environment agency said poses a flooding risk.

Sir James was hoping building work would start early next year with the first pupils arriving in September 2009.

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