Montessori Academy has scrapped plans to build a multi-million-dollar school in Devonshire.

Citing a lack of approval by the Planning Department as the reason, principal Margaret Hallett yesterday told The Royal Gazette : "We are not going to go ahead with the purchase of the Brighton Hill property largely because the highway engineer has objected.'' But she stressed the board was committed to expanding the school which has a growing waiting list.

"Our expansion is definitely going to go ahead in some shape or form, even if it means renting a place or finding some other arrangement, because we have to meet the demand,'' Mrs. Hallett said.

The school's board launched a $10 million capital campaign earlier this year aimed at taking the school into the 21st Century.

They had hoped to raise $2 million before July 1 in order to break ground in Devonshire by the end of summer.

Last month, the school had raised some $350,000 and former chairperson of the board of governors Margie Gordyk said other donations were also in the works as the school actively pursued international and local companies for financial support.

Yesterday, there was no word on what has been raised thus far. New board chairman Willie Wanklyn is off the Island until August 6.

School's scraps expansion plan But in a one-page statement issued yesterday, the board noted that approval of the building plans for the new school was essential for the purchase of the proposed Jackson property, nearly opposite Lindo's Supermarket in Devonshire.

Highways engineer Ian MacLeod had requested the school carry out a Traffic Impact Assessment Study and provide a report.

Such a study was a standard requirement, Mr. MacLeod told The Royal Gazette .

If the report had shown that the development would have an adverse impact on the flow of traffic, the Planning Department would have been willing to sit down with the school and work this out, he added.

There was no timeframe for such a study.

But in yesterday's statement, the board said Montessori could not afford "the significant time and expense to conduct such a study which could not commence until September'' when the deadline for a decision to buy the land was at hand.

"While this is a disappointment to everyone involved with the school,'' board secretary Henry French said, "the board is absolutely committed to finding space for expansion''.

Montessori, which has outgrown the National Trust's Tivoli property off Middle Road, Warwick where it started seven years ago with 72 students, has some 130 students and a waiting list of at least 20.

By next year that number is expected to increase to 70.

The board aimed to have the new school in Devonshire -- which was to include 12 classrooms, a media centre, an art and music room, a full-size gym and an administration centre -- open by September, next year.

It was to accommodate more than twice the number of current students when completed.