THE proposed new St John's School at Marlborough could have a grass roof to help it blend in with its surroundings, headteacher Patrick Hazlewood revealed this week.

The split-site St John's School and Community College plans to build a new school on its Orchard Road site, at an estimated cost of £12 million.

But the project hinges on it getting the go-ahead to have homes built on its lower school site in Chopping Knife Lane.

However, the 27-year-old battle, which started when the old grammar and secondary modern schools amalgamated in 1975, to get the school re-organised on one site depends on the outcome of the local plan inquiry taking place at Devizes into how the district should develop in the next ten years.

St John's is pinning its hopes on persuading the inquiry to allow the whole of the Chopping Knife Lane site, including the playing fields, to be developed, and not just the area presently occupied by the school buildings.

The case for the school will be presented to the inquiry on April 17, a week after the inspector hears from objectors to the housing development.

On Monday Dr Hazlewood said an outline planning application for the new school would be submitted to Kennet District Council by the end of March. A new access is proposed from the Pewsey road at the top of Granham Hill.

Dr Hazlewood said at this stage the plan will show the intended footprint of the new school, which it is intended to be built along the lines of a village with the teaching facilities on one side of a thoroughfare and the recreational buildings on the other.

He said Hampshire-based architects Format Milton had been given a brief to design the new school to blend in with the surrounding downland, and include energy-saving measures.

"The buildings and their roof line will follow the contours of the land and we are considering the idea of having a grass roof," he said.

"When viewed from The Common on the other side of the town you will virtually see almost an extension of the hill rather than the set of gross buildings we now have."

Dr Hazlewood said it was imperative, however, that planners permitted the entire Chopping Knife Lane to be developed. It has been estimated that as many as 150 homes, a percentage of them low cost homes, could be built.

At current land values, the sale of the site to a developer should produce the £12 million-plus the new school will cost to build, said Dr Hazelwood.

He said: "We want to give the students an environment which they can enjoy and relax in but also feel a responsibility for.

"At the same time we do not want the town or the residents to feel any imposition from the buildings. It is going to be an exciting project."

Dr Hazlewood said that if all goes to plan, the new school could be completed by late 2004 or early 2005.

Town council planning chairman Bill Cavill said: "It sounds good to me. I have always felt that coming down the hill into the town from Cadley the biggest blot on the landscape has been St John's School buildings."