Special school wins appeal for sale of green belt land
A SPECIAL school’s controversial plan to sell off green belt land for housing to bankroll a multi-million revamp of its facilities has taken a big step forward.
The Seashell Trust won its appeal against Stockport council’s decision to refuse planning permission for 325 homes on fields it owns in Heald Green following a public inquiry.
Now the trust - which provides education for children and young people with profound special needs - has sold its fields between Wilmslow Road and the A34 to developer Bloor Homes.
The sale will enable it to press ahead with plans for a radical upgrade of the ageing school campus including new sports facilities which will also be available to the public.
A detailed planning application is yet to be submitted, but campaigners say they remain angry the impact on local infrastructure continues to be overlooked.
However Jolanta McCall, the trust’s chief executive and principal, has enthusiastically welcomed the development.
She said: “I am absolutely delighted to announce that we have reached an agreement with Bloor Homes which will not only provide a significant funding boost to Seashell’s school and campus redevelopment project, but will also see a development of quality, local homes.
“The sale of the land for housing was always absolutely central to our plans to redevelop our desperately outdated school and campus because we were not able to raise all the funds ourselves and despite our best efforts, we couldn’t secure the funds from anywhere else.
“This sale allows us to start work on our exciting transformation project and offers a bright future for our children and young people.”
However, the sale of the land to Bloor Homes will not cover the cost of the entire project understood to be around the £50m mark - and further fundraising will be needed.
“It is, however, important to stress that today’s news is not the end of the story,” added Ms McCall.
“We still need to raise a further £12 million for the transformation project to deliver the school and campus our community needs and deserves.”
The major redevelopment of the Seashell Trust campus - which include a new school building, sports hall and swimming pool - was found to ‘ outweigh’ the harm the new homes would cause to the green belt by the Secretary of State. The council fought the appeal, which was also opposed by Cheadle MP Mary Robinson, but did not attempt to challenge the ruling through the High Court.
However campaigners Heald Green Action Group - which also gave evidence at the appeal, have expressed their dismay over the situation.
A spokesman said: “It has been disappointing to see the way this has been handled by our local and national representatives, placing politics and profit over legislation and the concerns of local residents.
“We had hoped to hear from those representatives how those infrastructure concerns will be addressed but so far there has been silence.”
Rhys Nicholson, regional managing director of Bloor Homes said the firm was ‘delighted to be associated with such a worthy project,’ adding that the Heald Green site would be ‘a natural fit’ for its ‘high quality homes.
The housebuilder has indicated it wants to begin work on the new homes ‘as quickly as possible’ and will be consulting the public on its proposals over the coming weeks.