Plans submitted for ‘stop-gap’ secondary school at Hopwood Hall College in Middleton

The Department of Education has lodged plans for a ‘stop-gap’ school at a Middleton college so pupils don’t have to wait for a new one to be built.

The application proposes temporary buildings on scrub land at Hopwood Hall College’s Middleton campus, on Rochdale Road.

It comes after planners granted outline permission for a new secondary school – dubbed the Edgar Wood Academy – at Bowlee.
 

Read more: Full planning application submitted for new secondary school set to open in Middleton next yearPublished: 20 January 2021

But that won’t be ready to open its doors until September 2022 at the earliest – and a shortfall of 114 pupil places is already forecast for Middleton this year.

The Altus Education Partnership announced its intention to run the school from temporary buildings at Hopwood Hall’s Middleton campus in November.

And now the Department for Education – which gave the nod for the new free school in 2019 – has submitted proposals for the temporary school to Rochdale Council.

The proposed site lies in the green belt, but a planning statement sets out the case for allowing the project to go ahead.

It reads: “The proposed development is to meet an immediate and substantial need for new secondary school places in Middleton and will offer stop-gap provision until a new permanent school can be occupied.

“The facility is temporary in nature and will be tightly controlled by planning conditions and the scale has been limited wherever possible to limit the temporary impact and harm on the green belt.”

It adds that the scale and temporary nature of the school and the urgent need to increase school places prove the ‘very special circumstances’ needed to approve green belt developments.

 

 

The Edgar Wood Academy is proposing an intake of 120 Year 7 pupils, or four forms, in September this year. This would rise to 180 – six forms – from 2022.

If given the go-ahead, the temporary school project would be completed in two potential phases.

The first phase would include the installation of a two-storey temporary school building, with six classrooms and a large communal dining and PE space.

The 844 square metre development would also boast staff rooms, offices, pastoral areas, toilets, changing areas, plant room and storage facilities.

Should the construction of the permanent school be delayed by the pandemic or other factors, a further phase would see a second temporary unit installed at the Hopwood Hall College site.

This would be the same size and identical in layout to the first, save for the provision of an additional classroom at the expense of communal areas which do not need to be replicated.

Both buildings would be constructed off-site and installed by a ‘small team’ during the summer break.

Access will be via the existing parking area for the college playing fields, while vehicles will enter the site from Rochdale Road.

The Department for Education has secured an agreement with the college to use the car park and access road for the use of the temporary facility.

The proposed development includes 11 staff parking spaces, including two disabled parking bays.

The temporary school would also have the use of the existing parking spaces for the neighbouring playing fields. These are not usually occupied during school hours.

Once the permanent school at Bowlee is up and running, the temporary buildings will be removed and the hard surfacing of the site, including the car park, play area and foundations will be removed.

A requirement to return the site to its current grassland state is proposed as a planning condition in the documents.

Nick Statham, Local Democracy Reporter