INVESTIGATORS have found conflicts of interest at a trust running a Sussex school which has now welcomed inner city London boarders.

From this week, 13 and 14-year-old pupils from the Durand Trust school in Stockwell are spending three nights a week at the Durand academy in Stedham, near Chichester.

The academy was at the centre of a race row last year when local councillor John Cherry suggested children from a “coloured area” would not fit in the countryside.

But an investigation by the National Audit Office (NAO), which concluded this week, found Durand Academy executive head Sir Greg Martin, who is paid nearly £230,000 a year, also earned cash running a business based at Durand’s Stockwell school.

The report revealed that for nearly two years the day-to-day running of the school has been delegated to Sir Greg’s ex-wife, Nathalie Parker, who earned up to £120,000. NAO investigators found a “complex” structure had grown up around Durand Academy and organisations linked to it.

They uncovered evidence of a “large number of conflicts of interest in the way that it managed its academy and its assets” – including a contract with a PR firm PLMR whose managing director is the school’s vice-chairman of governors. Payments totalling £583,000 were made to PLMR over three years.

Investigators were unable to determine the extent to which Sir Greg benefited from the arrangement, which the Department for Education has now ended.

The Durand Trust told The Argus: “The NAO report is based on an exchange between the Education Funding Agency (EFA) and Durand which took place six months ago, when the school was asked to update structures and governance to ensure that there could be no perceived conflicts of interest and to make certain that all aspects of the updated Academies Financial Handbook were complied with.

“The EFA has been absolutely clear that the arrangements the NAO looked into have delivered ‘significant benefits for the pupils of Durand’ and were established in good faith.”

Despite public opposition to the new academy on the site of the former St Cuthman’s school, 44 students travelled from South London to Stedham this week to begin boarding.

Sir Greg said:“After five years of planning, it has been an incredible feeling to open the doors and welcome Year 9 pupils to Durand Academy Boarding School.

“From the beautiful black and white building with Harry Potter staircases, to the brand new classrooms geared up for focused learning, and the sports field which has already hosted its first rugby match, we are all so excited about the opportunities the boarding school presents.”