Row over engineer's school scheme

Sir James hopes to inspire future UK inventors and engineers

A row has broken out between The James Dyson Foundation and the Environment Agency over the businessman's plans for a £25m school of design in Bath.

The scheme will now go to a public planning inquiry after the agency raised flooding concerns about the site which is adjacent to the River Avon.

In a statement the foundation spoke of the agency as "the worst side of quango bureaucracy with immense power".

The agency said: "We are disappointed with the comments."

The Environment Agency will now hold a planning inquiry to investigate whether the school would be a flood risk and to assess if it would fit in to Bath.

The agency has been working with Mr Dyson's agents for more than two years and have had numerous face-to-face meetings Environment Agency statement

Sir James said: "The school is being built on raised land which is above the 1,000 year flood warning plus 20 % so it won't flood."

His spokeswoman, Julia Curry, added: "We've spent £3.5m and four years developing this project.

"We've got vast support, the only people that are blocking it, as far was we can see, are the Environment Agency.

"They won't talk to us. We don't know what a planning inquiry on this is going to achieve when the Environment Agency are the only ones blocking us."

In its statement the agency said: "We are disappointed with the comments made by Mr Dyson following the decision by the government to 'call-in' the planning application for the South Quays development, particularly since this is an integral part of the democratic process.

"The agency has been working with Mr Dyson's agents for more than two years and have had numerous face-to-face meetings.

"The South Quays site falls within an area with the highest risk of flooding. The flood risk is predicted to increase in the future due to the effects of climate change."

Sir James wants to construct his pioneering engineering school at the site off Lower Bristol Road, now known as South Quays.

In October 2007, Bath Spa University decided not to go ahead with the purchase of the South Quays site.