New special needs academy could be built on green belt land

DETAILS have been revealed about a special needs school that could be built on green belt land in South Gloucestershire.

Two Bridges Academy at Alveston, near Thornbury, will have capacity for 112 special needs pupils from the ages of two to 19, and South Gloucestershire Council is making the case for it to be built on green belt land.

A consultation launched via the council states: “Various documents are being prepared to justify its location and these will be submitted in support of a planning application.

“The brief for the school is for ‘net zero carbon’, so sustainability is a key factor in the design and operational approach.”

The site, which had already been made public years ago, is a spare playing field on the existing Marlwood secondary school off Vattingstone Lane.

A website set up to promote the school says: “A comprehensive search of possible sites within the South Gloucestershire administrative area has been undertaken.

“With the exception of the proposed site at Marlwood School, there are no other sites that are of suitable size, available, deliverable and meet the council’s strategy.”

The timeline for the build and planning approval is expected to take at least two years.

The school will be run by Enable Trust, the same multi-academy trust that oversees New Siblands School in Thornbury and Culverhill School in Yate, and funded by the Department for Education.

It will educate pupils with severe learning difficulties and autism, as well as those with profound, and multiple learning difficulties.