The Downs School will not have to pay any money back to West Berkshire Council – after a climbdown by the local authority. Now the council has retracted the claim on nearly half a million pounds – and reduced the amount other schools in the district have to give back. Last night’s full council meeting heard the lengthy retraction from council leader Jeff Brooks who said he and his team had visited five of the schools in question for further talks. “The clawback of funds from schools that appear to have an excess of uncommitted reserves has been an area of great anxiety and concern to eight sch…