A PRIMARY school in Melksham awaiting a move to a new housing estate is
hoping its plans for stopgap classroom space will be approved tomorrow
night.
Forest and Sandridge School will leave its Victorian building and relocate
to a proposed new 750-home development, between Sandridge Road and Snowberry
Lane, when it is built.
The East of Melksham development, which involves a consortium of developers,
already has outline planning permission for the scheme, which includes
purpose-built primary school accommodation.
Governors at Forest and Sandridge have applied for a single storey mobile
classroom on its present site in Sandridge Common as a temporary measure
until the new school is built.
Planning officers at West Wiltshire District Council are advising
councillors to approve the application at a meeting tomorrow night, but the
plan has attracted objections.
Melksham Without Parish Council opposes the mobile classroom as it believes
the school site is too small for further expansion.
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The council is also worried about a loss of playing space, loss of trees and
the impact on traffic, as more people would be using the school.
In its application Forest and Sandridge said the mobile classroom would
provide space for small groups of existing pupils for supplementary
learning.
The application added: "There is a current lack of this type of small group
teaching and the proposal will therefore be in connection with the existing
pupils of the school.
"There will be no increase in staffing levels as a result of the proposal
and therefore no changes are proposed to the parking provision."
Planning officer Margaretha Bloom said in her report to councillors: "While
the design of the proposal is not ideal in the open countryside location in
which it is situated, it is designed to match the existing mobile classrooms
on the site.
"The proposal will be a temporary structure and the small area of loss is
not considered to have a detrimental impact on the amount of recreational
space available to the school."
Ms Bloom advised the mobile classroom by given temporary permission for two
years.
The Highways Authority has raised no objections to the plan, as long as the
school updates its existing travel plan.
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