New school opening hit by delays over wildlife
GREAT PARK SCHOOL COULD BE PUSHED BACK TO 2022
THE opening of a much-needed new school on the Newcastle Great Park could be pushed back until 2022.
Long delays to the next phase of building on the estate and a potential legal challenge from wildlife campaigners mean that families will have to wait even longer for Broadway East First School to move to a new home.
The first school had been due to relocate from Gosforth to a bigger site on the Great Park in September next year, but it has been revealed the move could now be delayed by up to two years.
Anita Lower, councillor for the Great Park and Newcastle’s Lib Dem opposition leader, said that the area is “desperate for a school” and the delays mean that young children are “going to suffer”.
She added: “For parents living in the Great Park with children this is going to be a real, real blow. It means children will have to travel a long way to go to school – young children, not teenagers. “Local schools are already full, so they will have to go even further afield. Not everyone has transport and even for those who do, it means putting more cars on the road.
“It is delaying something that is really, really important.” Newcastle City Council announced earlier this month that it had finally granted planning permission for the next 1,200 homes to be built on the Great Park and two schools – the first school for 450 pupils and a middle/secondary school for up to 1,700.
The approvals had already been long delayed, with the project first considered by the council’s planning committee in January 2017 and then again in December 2018.
But campaigners from Save Newcastle Wildlife are attempting to launch a new legal challenge against the council’s decision, potentially pushing the scheme back even further.
Council documents now reveal that the various delays mean that its acquisition of the first school site could be delayed until October 2021 “to allow time for the Judicial Review period to have lapsed or a potential legal challenge to be addressed as well as the legal process for the transfer of the land”.
That means that a revised opening date of September 2022 has been set for the school, though that could be brought forward if the legal challenge does not go ahead.
Local parent Holly Barkess says the promise of new schools was the “main reason” her family moved to the Great Park, adding: “It was my dream to be able to walk the kids to school and have their friends all on the same estate.”
The mum-oftwo said many parents understand wildlife campaigners’ concerns about the Great Park development, but believe that vital school provision should not have been tied to the delivery of more than 1,000 homes.
Deputy leader of the council, Coun Joyce McCarty, said: “The development at Newcastle Great Park involves hundreds of new homes, and we need schools to accommodate the extra children these will bring. We are keen to see progress like everyone else, however schemes as big as this which involve multiple partners are very often subject to delays, through no fault of the council.
“We anticipate a new school will be operating by 2022 if not before. We have a statutory duty to ensure there are enough school places for children in the city and we are already working with local schools to ensure this happens in the interim.”
Save Newcastle Wildlife is attempting to raise £3,500 to fund a judicial review and has currently collected more than £1,800 in online donations since a fundraising page was launched on Monday.
Not everyone has transport and even for those who do, it means putting more cars on the road.
Coun Anita Lower