Plans for old school to be turned into village flats

VICTORIAN BUILDING COULD BE TRANSFORMED IN COTTINGHAM

Plans have been submitted to turn a former village school campus in to flats PLANS have been revealed for the future of an historic school building that has been left empty since last summer.

The former Hallgate Junior School in Cottingham was at the heart of the village until it closed down a decade ago, but it was not until last year when the buildings held their final class.

The Victorian buildings were taken on by a Christian school – The Focus School Cottingham Campus – which was run by North Moor Educational Trust before it upped sticks and moved to Scunthorpe at the start of the current school year.

However, the past nine months have seen the old site, which is across the road from the grade one-listed St Mary’s Church, left dormant after its latest owners moved on.

Now, new plans showing what will happen to the Hallgate site have been submitted to East Riding Council with the hope it can be turned into 29 new flats.

Plans also reveal developers want to build a new building to house a further six flats beside Cottingham Adult Learning Centre and close to the playground for Hallgate Primary School, which shares the same street.

The three-storey building will be built on the west side of the campus if council planners approve the project. Before the Focus School moved to North Lincolnshire, it catered for 110 pupils and employed 24 members of staff, but the classrooms will become flats as part of the new proposals.

The developer also wants to add 49 car parking spaces to the site, which is close to the junction of King Street and Hallgate.

When the news broke that the site would be vacated last year, fears spread that the Victorian buildings could be demolished. At the time, Councillor Ros Jump, who represents Cottingham North on East Riding Council, said: “I’ve got awful thoughts that it is going to be demolished.

“It would be tragic to lose it if it was demolished. It would change the scenery horrendously if it wasn’t there.

“Whatever happens there will be governed by the proximity to the grade one-listed church.

“You just have to hope that something sensitive is done and sanity prevails and we don’t get a monster on our doorstep.”