COUNCILLORS have strongly criticised their own education department for failing to apply for planning permission of two prefabricated classrooms.

The headteacher of Intack Primary School Rachel Cairney had to apply for retrospective approval for the modular buildings on the playground of the Whitebirk Road premises.

The application was considered on Thursday by Blackburn with Darwen council planning committee.

Higher Croft Labour councillor Don McKinlay condemned the backdated nature the proposals.

He said: “This is terrible. Do the people in our education department not talk to planning?

“Do they not realise that if you want to put up classrooms, you need permission.

“These are not small structures. It’s obvious they needed to apply.

“If this was a private householder who failed to ask for planning permission and came to us with a backdated application, we would all be on their backs.

“It is quite wrong for our local authority to ignore planning rules in this way.

“It must not happen again.”

Committee chairman Dave Smith said: “I agree. This is not acceptable.

“I would like our planning officers to have a word with the education department to make sure this does not happen again.”

Borough planning development manager Gavin Prescott said: “I can assure the committee we have already had that conversation to ensure this is not repeated.”

The debate followed an objection by a neighbour who wrote to the council in August complaining that work had been under way for six weeks without any planning permission.

The backdated permission was granted. The borough education department and Mrs Cairney declined to comment.