A FUNDRAISING appeal for a stained glass ?peace window? was launched by a West Devon school last week ? despite rejection of its installation by the local planning authority.

Milton Abbot School is aiming to raise £4,000 for the window and says it will fight the planning decision.

Headteacher Peter Jones said: ?I?m taking advice on it at the moment. I have already talked to the planning department and made known our intention to go down the road of appeal.

?It?s attracted a great deal of support from individuals and wider organisations, not just people involved with the school.?

Mr Jones said just under £2,000 had already been raised towards the window appeal. He said the school?s parents? association would be organising events and he is approaching outside funding sources as well.

?The Round Table has come forward to support us already,? said Mr Jones, who said the appeal would ?definitely not? mean funds were diverted away from other projects at Milton Abbot School.

?No way ? this is very much an extra,? he said.

Parents and guests were invited to the school last Friday to see a model of the window and listen to specially composed poems and songs prepared by the children, all on a theme of peace.

Ward member for Milton Abbot, Cllr Dilwyn Hughes, said linking children throughout the world through the installation of a series of peace windows was a pioneering idea.

?To instill in these children, from the age of five to eleven, a minute?s silence for peace, every day, is something they will never forget,? said Cllr Hughes.

He said rejection of the peace window by West Devon Borough Council?s planning committee was ?ludicrous?.

?I support the school right down the line.We have to pull this through. It?s a lovely building and this is something that in 50 years? time they will be pleased it?s there,? he said.

?We will take this to the highest authority in the land if it is turned down on appeal.?

The application to install the peace window, created by a 93-year-old Benedictine monk, was last month rejected on grounds it would be detrimental to the character of the Grade II Listed school building.

The school was founded by the Duke of Bedford in 1829. West Devon?s conservation officer told the committee the stained glass panel, which the school wants to install in the lower half of the hall window, would be out of character with the gothic mullion at the top of the window.

Jane Green, planning services manager, said appeals could be made in three ways ? by written representation, at an informal hearing or through a full public inquiry.

The planning inspector was ?completely independent? and would listen to both sides of the case before making a decision said Ms Green, who said the process rarely took fewer than two to three months.

The peace window is part of a programme of similar windows

organised by the Flight of the Phoenix project.

It is hoped schools world-wide will install the windows, linking children in the spirit of harmony and peace, regardless of race, religion and culture.

A candle would be lit in front of the window and children would be given the opportunity to gather in silence for a minute in the promotion of international peace.

The colourful window depicts the universe with a rising sun, moon, stars, sky, sea and earth. In the centre is a flame representing the spiritual essence of life.