A PIONEERING language school will open next year after planners gave it the go-ahead.
Despite deep reservations over how the Language Immersion Centre would affect the look of Commercial Road and Blackfriars Priory in Gloucester, members of Gloucestershire County Council's planning committee passed the application yesterday.
While experts believe it is a good example of "sensitive" architecture in a Replica Louis Vuitton Bags Handags Replica historic setting, one member of the committee branded it a "monstrosity".
But now work will start in September and by December next year the first students will arrive.
The centre will be built on the former Clutch Clinic site. Demolition was completed earlier this year.
The Language Immersion Centre will be the only one of its type in the country. It will teach students languages such has Mandarin, Arabic and Russian by immersing them in the language in a similar way to spending time in a foreign country.
"We can look forward to the most exciting language space for our young people," said one of the project's directors, Sue Turner, who is head of Chosen Hill School in Churchdown.
Government funding of Pounds 5million will stand if it is spent before August 2011 and built by the end of December 2011.
Chris Foley, head of regeneration at the South West Regional Development Agency, which is investing more than Pounds 380,000 in the project, said: "This exciting contemporary building is just what the Blackfriars area needs to attract visitors and businesses back to this neglected area of Gloucester.
"With the new Language Immersion Centre and the revitalised priory we are helping to create a new cultural Fake Oris Watches quarter for the city that will be good news for the local economy. Now planning permission has been granted, work can start on site soon with a view to the new centre being open to take its first students by 2011."
Sensitive Chris Oldershaw, chief executive of the Gloucester Heritage Urban Regeneration Company (GHURC), said: "We are delighted that a top flight architect was appointed for such a sensitive site. This scheme shows how Fake Patek Philippe contemporary architecture works well within an historic area."
The planning application was approved by the county council rather than the city council.
Gloucester Civic Trust was unhappy with aspects of the building relating to neighbouring Blackfriars Priory - the most complete in England. It houses a 13th Century scriptorium, considered one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It believes the city council should have ruled on the application.
Gloucester City Council objected to the application. One of its fiercest critics was Westgate division member Pam Tracey (Conservative), who said:"Blackfriars is well known. Those who sit on these consultation committees are not Gloucester people. "That is going to be a bleak view. It will be a monstrosity."
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