South Craven School’s plans to widen sporting activities for its pupils and feeder schools have suffered a setback.

An application from the school to build a European-style multi-purpose air dome occupying the space of four tennis courts has been refused by Craven District Council planning officers acting under delegated powers.

But Dr Andrew Cummings, head teacher of the Cross Hills academy school, said the refusal was not a problem and the application would be re-submitted following the completion of a couple of assessments.

“We needed to put in a couple of extra assessments and they were not able to be completed on time,” he said. “It is not a delay for us, as we had not planned to start work until the spring.”

The dome would take just two weeks to put up and would come, via a Lancashire company, from Slovenia where the domes are used to ensure sporting events can continue even in bad weather.

The school – which already has funding in place – hopes to use the dome not only for indoor sport throughout the year but also for assemblies and presentations.

The application, which was not given an airing at the council’s planning committee, was refused permission because of harm to neighbouring amenities.

Officers accepted there would be benefits to the school, but they did not outweigh the potential damage.

The school was further criticised for lack of agreement on wider public use of the dome, which would have been the first of its kind in Craven.