AN APPEAL for a new junior girls' boarding house and medical centre at Benenden School was dismissed by the planning inspectorate.

The plans were refused by Tunbridge Wells Borough Council in October last year for not including energy-efficient measures or resources for the on-site production of energy. The appeal was refused for the same reasons.

Proposals including 20 dormitories, three staff flats and a seven-bed medical centre did not include information to show how renewable energy techniques would be used, according to inspector David Green. He said in his report there was no way of knowing "how they might impact upon the external appearance of the proposed building" which lies in the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.