A legal battle over an extension to a Hamilton nursery school is to return to the courts.

The Corporation of Hamilton is seeking an injunction to halt work on two new classrooms at Woodmont Nursery school -- as construction has already begun on the site.

An appeal against planning permission by the Corporation was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in April, and after waiting to hear whether or not any further legal action was to be taken by the Corporation, the school owner decided to start work.

Dorothy Billings, owner of Woodmont, which is situated at the junction of Cedar Avenue and Dundonald Street West, said she had been waiting for four years to build the classrooms and decided to go ahead after waiting weeks to hear if the Corporation was to appeal.

If the injunction is successful work will stop immediately, pending an appeal hearing which has been lodged by the Corporation but might not take place until November.

The dispute surrounds a 15-ft space of land that exists between the road and any buildings. The Corporation argued that the extension would encroach on that space and cause a precedent if it was allowed to go ahead.

But Mrs. Billings believes there is more to the disagreement than a few feet of void land.

"I can't believe they are fighting about this. I believe they have a hidden agenda that we don't know about yet,'' she said.

"I am just a small business trying to serve the community -- they are putting a lot of legal costs on both sides.'' Mrs. Billings said she wrote to the Corporation three weeks before she intended to start building work, to see what they intended to do, but said they only replied three days before the workmen were due to arrive.

She is determined to finish the project, which has been on the drawing boards for four years, but says she will fence off the area if the injunction orders work to stop.

Roger Sherratt, Corporation of Hamilton Secretary, said the purpose of the injunction was to stop the building going any further, since once it was complete there would be no chance of taking any action.

He rejected any idea of a hidden agenda.

"The Corporation does feel that we would like the nursery to hold off on the development until this case has been decided, for that reason we took out the injunction,'' he said.

He said the road allowances and set-back lines were very important to the City's roads -- particularly for road widening -- and, if the school was allowed to go ahead, the case could set a precedent.

The Corporation's original appeal was made against the Minister of Environment, who originally granted planning permission for the classrooms.

"We are always very reluctant to take matters to court, we do feel this is a matter of considerable importance which could have long term effects,'' said Mr. Sherratt.

The injunction is set to be heard this week and the appeal hearing is expected to take place before the Court of Appeal in November.

COURTS CTS