Billingham school building replacement plan approved

The Department for Education (DfE) asked for planning consent to knock down St Paul’s Catholic Primary School’s main building, and erect a “new modern, replacement one-storey school building”, repositioned parallel with Thames Road. It was proposed to open parts of the site for community use outside school hours.

The replacement school is part of improvements to the grounds to support pupils’ education and extra-curricular needs by the Bishop Hogarth Catholic Educational Trust. A new teaching block will be built and the existing main school building will be demolished, with a linked existing smaller building kept.

This will come along with new outdoor play areas, a “multi-functional games area”, a large grass pitch, wildflower and meadow planting, parking, cycle storage and other landscaping. The plans say there will be no changes to the number of pupils coming into the Billingham school – 210 pupils aged three to 11, with 26 full-time nursery places and alternative resources provision for six pupils.

Sport England objected to the plan at first, but withdrew its objection, saying “improvements to the proposed playing field are sufficient to counterbalance the loss of playing field area”, as long as a condition covering a replacement field was added to planning permission.

Planning officers said the benefits of the scheme would outweigh any harm, saying in their report: “The development is wholly within the confinements of the existing school boundary and would seek to provide a new, modern school facility with improved external play areas, which would be available for used by the community after school hours.

“The proposals are considered to provide a modern contrast to the existing school building, thus improving the overall character of the site and wider area. The proposed development would not be of detrimental visual harm to the character and appearance of the site or wider locale.”

Officers said the proposals would involve “bringing the built form further south, closer to the residential properties”, but there would be “negligible impact” on privacy, overshadowing or overbearing, and “minimal impact” on the nearby Northfield School and Sports College. They also said “no adverse noise impact”, no ecological harm or severe impact on roads were anticipated, environmental health officers did not object, and the new building would be fossil fuel-free with heat pumps and roof solar panels.

A planning statement from DPP Planning, agent for the DfE, said: “The new school will support the same capacity as the existing facility while significantly upgrading its functionality, efficiency and design standards. The new school will be a single-storey structure designed to be accessible, visually appealing and cohesive with the surrounding area.

“The new building seeks to locate the main hall centrally within the development, with a proposed raised ceiling height.” The proposals said they were keeping 18 staff car parking spaces, including two disabled bays and two electric vehicle charging points, the number of cycle spaces rising from 12 to 40, with pedestrian access from Wolviston Mill Lane and Thames Road.

The statement added: “The proposed new school building will provide modern teaching facilities to contribute towards the overall improvement in the school’s operational performance, which will ultimately benefit the quality of education for pupils. Pupils will have access to high-quality outdoor sports facilities, and the implementation of hard and soft landscaping, which will contribute towards their physical and mental health and wellbeing.

“Economically, the proposals will result in a significant amount of investment into education facilities at St Paul’s Primary School, which will benefit pupils and their families in the local area. Temporary construction jobs will be created during the construction period associated with the proposed development.”

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The DfE decided not to provide a parent car park or drop-off point, as suggested during public consultation, because this would mean taking away part of the playing field, which would be against policy and would not be accepted by Sport England. Describing congestion on Wolviston Mill Lane and Sandy Lane West as “short-lived”, the statement says families have been encouraged to walk to school or “park and stride” a short distance away to ease congestion and make drop-offs and pick-ups safer.

It said part of a south-east playing field will be lost but replaced in the north-west of the site, adding more than 600sqm of playing field in total. A hard play area, including a netball court, will be replaced by a new playground or hard play area with line markings to the north of the proposed new building.

It acknowledged the new building would be nearer people’s homes, but was designed as one-storey to prevent harmful impacts and a “significant distance” was still kept. Council planning officers decided to approve the plan with conditions.