A KEY element of government education policy is put to the test this week after planners rejected a £10 million bid to build Britain's first-ever eco-academy in the Herefordshire countryside.

Whitehall wanted to spend millions on building an academy, specialising in the study of the natural environment, at the Hereford Waldorf School site, Much Dewchurch - but had its homework sent back.

Herefordshire Council's southern area planning sub-committee said the scheme was too big for itself and breached local development policies.

Both the government and the Waldorf School are now thinking over what happens next. Neither wants to give up on the eco-academy idea and an appeal or a new plan looks likely.

If Whitehall got its way, the fee-paying Waldorf School would be rebuilt - boosted by about £10 million from the Department for Education and Skills - as the country's first state-funded academy offering Steiner schooling with its distinctly non-competitive curriculum and holistic approach to academic studies.

The plan ran into trouble when first pitched last year.

Herefordshire Council told Whitehall that a Steiner Academy wasn't wanted when village schools around the county were already struggling to survive as pupil numbers started dropping away.

The committee heard, however, that the Education and Inspection Act placed a responsibility on local authorities to maximise diversity and parental choice. On this issue, members heard, the council recognised the greater choice the Steiner school would bring and that the need for the academy should be judged in that context.

Planning officers first recommended the academy for rejection because of potential traffic troubles and fears of overloading local water and sewerage systems.

By the time the committee met last Wednesday, that recommendation had changed. Members were urged to approve the scheme because the problems had seemingly been sorted.

The committee wasn't convinced and a nine-to-one vote saw the plan thrown out. Members opted to put local planning policy defining development scale over the government's education agenda and its parental choice principle.

Councillor Godfrey Davis said he couldn't see why government was giving one school "millions" to make itself an academy when the county was crying out for cash to keep village schools going.

A first state-funded Steiner Academy - specialising in the study of the natural environment - is a key element of the government's academies programme, established in 2000 as an initiative to improve education standards.

Academies are public-funded independent schools set up by private sponsors, which have so far tended to be business or faith groups.

Academies are not allowed to select pupils by ability, but sponsors do have control over the curriculum and standards of the school.

The independent status of an academy is intended to allow them flexibility to be "innovative and creative" in their approaches to learning, while working outside the funding control of a local authority.

Running costs for an academy are met in full by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). Capital costs are shared between the DfES and sponsors.

The main sponsor for the Waldorf project would be the Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship, with £2 million. Money to improve the buildings would come from the government.

Opened at Much Dewchurch 21 years ago, the Waldorf School now takes nearly 270 pupils from all over the county. Academy status would mean the school taking about 330 pupils.

Speaking after the meeting, William Braid, the governor driving the academy plan, said any extra numbers could be absorbed by the school's current waiting list. He said the rejection of the bid was a "great disappointment" and an appeal or a re-submission was being considered.

Charlotte Redman, for the DfES, said the department was now thinking over "the next step" for the academy idea.