COMMUNITIES Secretary Eric Pickles’s intervention in an Oxford free school appeal has been described as “unprecedented” and “inexplicable”.

Oxford City Council leader Bob Price has raised concerns about Mr Pickles’s power to override local decision-making over whether Tyndale Community School should be allowed to open.

He said: “We have always said it would be fairest to treat free school applications like other planning applications, rather than having one set of rules for most people and a different set for free schools.

“It would be a big worry if this principle of fair play was jettisoned because of a dogmatic attachment to the free schools model, with the Secretary of State interfering in a local decision.”

The council’s Labour group said it found the “unprecedented intervention by Mr Pickles to be inexplicable”.

The new primary school, which would ultimately cater for up to 420 pupils, was previously given Government approval to open in September. But when the council met in March to decide on a planning application for change of use for the former Lord Nuffield Club, in Barracks Lane, Cowley, permission was refused.

An appeal by proposers Chapel Street Community Schools Trust and Oxfordshire Community Churches has been lodged and Mr Pickles has now written to the council to say he will be determining the planning appeal, with the planning inspector’s conclusions just providing advice to the Secretary of State.

Steve Jones, who is set to be chairman of governors at the school, said he did not know why Mr Pickles had decided to personally consider the appeal.

But he pointed out planning officers had recommended the proposal for approval and there had been no highways objections.

He said: “It’s not obvious that it is going to affect the outcome of the decision.

“The council has sadly put themselves on a losing wicket by opposing something the planning officers could see ought to be approved in planning terms.

“Eric Pickles obviously has some executive power to do what he likes, but we have not agitated for him to do anything.

“We believe we have a great case.”

Its application process ran separately from Oxfordshire County Council’s normal procedure, with some families receiving offers for a local authority school and for Tyndale.

Mr Jones would not say how many applications were received, but said anyone in the local area who had been disappointed by their allocation could still apply to the free school.

He said: “We are really confident the school is going to be well attended.

“Those parents who are looking at sending their child to school in a taxi or looking at coping with logistically impossible school runs, there is an option that might well serve them.”

Mr Pickles refused to comment.