A SCHOOL, backed by a group of residents, is threatening to appeal against a council decision over an access footpath.

St Columba's RC Boys' School, Halcot Avenue, Bexleyheath, had asked Bexley Council to remove one of the conditions insisting on the footpath, attached to its planning permission for a new sports hall and three-storey teaching block given in October last year.

But the council has refused.

At the October planning meeting, people living in Halcot Avenue fiercely objected to a new entrance to the school from their road, which they said would only make existing problems of traffic, parking and pupils' unruly behaviour worse.

The school got its new entrance but councillors at the meeting put a further condition on the planning permission, instructing the school to create a new footpath exit from the school to Gravel Hill.

Then residents in Gravel Hill objected, saying they had not been consulted and the access onto Gravel Hill, right next to a bus stop, would be dangerous.

Work on the path stopped in the summer and the school, unhappy at the cost and the way the path restricted sporting activities on the playing field, asked the council if it could do without the path.

But after hearing from the Halcot Avenue residents, the headteacher and people in Gravel Hill, councillors refused to lift the footpath requirement.

Tony Amos, speaking for Halcot Avenue residents, said nothing had changed since last October.

He pleaded with councillors to keep the footpath for the sake of the quality of life for residents in the avenue.

Headteacher Bart Cannon said the safety of pupils would be at risk from accelerating traffic, poor visibility and the location of the bus stop.

He said it would be difficult for staff to properly police two entrances.

Dave Reynolds, from nearby Faygate Crescent, also warned of the road safety dangers of an exit onto Gravel Hill.

But after some debate, councillors decided by seven votes to three the path should stay.

Afterwards Mr Cannon said the school would try to staff the path but said governors would be meeting to decide whether to appeal against the council's decision.

He said "I still feel it will be very dangerous. It is a safety issue."