PLANS to double the size of a South Lakeland school to accommodate the increasing needs of a Christian group have been scrapped by the school governors.

Pastor Mike Horsman spoke this week of his hopes for a joint partnership between his Lakes Christian Centre and Goodly Dale community primary school in Windermere, but said the decision would not damage relations between the two organisations.

The Lakes Christian Centre was founded in Langdale 100 years ago with a membership of 10. It currently has around 150 members using the Windermere school hall venue each week. Pastor Horsman said the hall could not accommodate all those who wished to attend Sunday worship.

"We looked at the problem once before, but planning difficulties meant we couldn't go ahead," said Pastor Horsman. "Now, we had hoped we could jointly fund an expansion which would give us a larger hall, and the school would have more classrooms and toilet facilities."

But the school's head teacher, Penny Henderson, explained that a meeting of the school governors had decided not to take up the proposal. "The proposals would have doubled the size of the hall," she said. "We thought, as a school, we did not need a hall twice as big. There would also be knock-on effects such as heating.

"It would also have been possible that, because of our pupil numbers, a larger school could be seen as not being as fully utilised as it should, and the LEA could close us.

"What we are doing is going in with what's called a suitability bid' for LEA funding to make enough room in our classrooms for computer equipment. They are really too small for IT expansion at the moment.

We are happy to have the Christian Centre use the hall for as long as they wish. We are happy to have them here, but we understand their difficulties."

Pastor Horsman added: "As a church, we are getting bigger. We have a good working relationship with Goodly Dale and this will not harm that.

"We will be at the school for the foreseeable future and will consider how best we can deal with the problem of lack of space."

Pastor Horsman said he was "bewildered" by a letter, purporting to be written by him to The Westmorland Gazette, which set out the hopes of the centre for a larger hall at the school.

"I would not have written such a letter, knowing that the governors were meeting a few days later to consider the proposal, even if the gist of its content is correct," he said.