Council approve Bleak Hill School hall and playground plans

St Helens Council approved proposals to expand Bleak Hill Primary School on Hamilton Road in Windle in January to meet demand for places.

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Under the proposals, the school will accommodate 75 pupils into reception year for the September 2019 intake, rising to a permanent 90 places for the 2020 intake.

The estimated cost of the overall proposed scheme is £2,555,000.

The total cost can be funded by a grant awarded by the Department for Education to ensure that adequate numbers of school places are available.

And yesterday, Tuesday, members of the town hall's planning committee unanimously approved the first phase to build a single-storey extension to the school hall and to extend the playground.

Manager of development at the council, Melanie Hale, said: "There has been in increase in numbers at the school over the last two years primarily as a result of a lack of primary school places in the Eccleston and Windle area, and the desire to accommodate those in existing schools rather than to try and procure further free school places.

"This application is to support existing pupil numbers and to the delivery of the curriculum to them.

"The phase one extension to the hall will address the capacity issues which already exist at the school and the overcrowding in the hall at lunchtimes.

"The school has previously tried to address this by moving those children who take packed lunches into classrooms.

"This has had to stop however after criticism from some parents during the consultation on the expansion

"Stakeholders specifically commented that the children do not have sufficient space and therefore time to eat their school dinner.

"It will enable the school to hold whole school assemblies and other concerns raised during the consultation."

Bleak Hill Primary School's playground

The larger hall will also allow the school to hold concerts, two classes of PE at the same time and extra-curricular activities.

There have been objections made from residents from six houses and a further representation made by the parish council.

Resident Steve Muskett, who lives on Hamilton Road, spoke against the application.

He said: "While I appreciate this is only for the hall, during the consultation phase council officers informed parents and residents that the hall would not go ahead without the classroom expansion

"So it seems a bid odd to me that all the plans for the hall have been submitted.

"By definition, if the hall goes ahead, the classroom expansion goes ahead. That’s what officers told us.

"I don’t see any reason or justification that the whole plans can’t be submitted and everyone can see the global picture of what the impact is going to be.

"I mean for instance the flood authority raised concerns about this site until someone gave him a prod and reminded him it was only for the hall.

"He’s since gone away and said ‘oh well, if it’s just the hall, then it’s probably going to be OK.’

"But we all know that ultimately the building will become as big as planned and all of the issues that the flood authority officer imagined will happen.

"Behind my property there is regularly three or four inches of waters

“There are residents in Regal Drive and Fairway who have installed pumps into their gardens to remove water.

"More concrete there is going to exacerbate the problem.

"I don’t think anything is going to be changed or fixed the issue for us.

"I have noticed the water consultant’s report. As I understand it they have not been to site.

"If they actually came to the site they would see the conditions. Children’s football is regularly cancelled because it’s waterlogged.

"Probably the worst area affected by flooding is on Brookside Avenue, and as I understand it, they’ve not even been informed about the development.

"The flooding has got worse over the 20 years since the school was rebuilt and re-sited.

It’s apparently not the council’s problem, it’s not United Utilities’, it’s not the Environment Agency’s problem, it’s just residents’ problems.

"We are the ones who suffer and nobody does anything about it and haven’t done for the 20 years that I’ve lived there.

"Unless you live in that area, live and breathe it every day, you can’t imagine the problems that we suffer with.

"If you are there every day, every week it’s unbelievable.

"Another 200 children in that school, 200 cars. It’s going to be madness.

"This school is landlocked by housing, it’s not the place for an expansion.

"There’s got to be other options out there."

"The irony is, work’s started today (Tuesday).

"How is that possible when planning has not been approved? It’s beyond me."

An artist's impression of what the school could look like under the long-term plans

Mr Musket also said teachers that live 300 yards from the school are driving in separate cars rather than walking to alleviate traffic."

In addressing Mr Muskett's five minute speech, Ms Hale said it was "important to point out" the planning merits of the application.

"Clearly there are issues at the school that Mr Muskett talked about that I think we’d all have sympathy with in terms of traffic and existing flooding problems", she said.

"The aspiration is for the school to move permanently to a three-form entry on the basis of a shortage of school places generally in that area.

"In terms of the flooding side of it, we are aware that there are flooding problems in this area.

"There is a condition about managing surface area."

Ms Hale also warned that any work which is carried out ahead of an application being approved is "done at risk".

Before opening the discussion to fellow members, chairman of the committee Cllr Seve Gomez-Aspron, made his feelings on the matter clear.

He said: "We need to make sure we understand what this it.

"There are wider ambitions to expand the school. This is not that.

"This is an extra hall to accommodate the issues.

"My view is that if we’ve got kids that can’t have dinner in the hall because they have to eat it off the classroom desks there is an issue with capacity somewhere."

The location of the development

Liberal Democrat representative Cllr Geoff Pearl echoed Mr Muskett's flooding concerns.

He said:"Before any work is done, I would like to see an engineer out there in conjunction with United Utilities. to see how they are going to fix this and see what they can do about it."

The Eccleston councillor also said people "take their lives in their own hands" when they are crossing Hamilton Road due to how busy it is.

Moss Bank councillor John Fulham called on any trees knocked down to be replaced in the vicinity.

He also urged officers to explore the possibility to use porous materials for the playground rather than concrete to reduce the risk of flooding.

Cllr Richard McCauley believes the borough's transport plan should be reviewed.

The Thatto Heath representative said: "I do feel for residents on the parking issue. I think any of us that go near any school know how bad they are.

"Could we condition on here something about a school transport plan and having a look at the school transport plan because of that?"

Ms Hale said that there could be a school travel plan incorporated.

She also answered Cllr McCauley's construction concerns by saying a condition can be made that there would be no construction vehicles allowed to move in and out of the school around peak times.

Windle councillor Gill Neal updated her fellow members on work that has already been carried out at the school.

She said: “We are aware that there are traffic problems around the school.

“We have engaged with the school and we are in the process of already working around a travel plan.

“We have already raised issues around works and the times of the movements in and out and the storage of equipment.

“We have already raised those concerns in advance and been assured of those things.

“The problem for this plan is this isn’t an expansion of the school. That’s not where we’re at.

"Those traffic issues are already there and we are trying to work to resolve those traffic issues."

Cllr Pearl queried whether the option of "walking school buses" could be introduced to alleviate pressure on the road.

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Cllr Neal said all options will be considered but added: "If we’ve got working parents and they need to drop their child off on the way to work they are going to be in a car.

"We have to accept the fact that we have working parents around this school and they are dropping their children off."

The motion to approve the application was made by Cllr Fulham and seconded by the borough's Conservatives leader Allan Jones with the conditions that were raised.

The application was approved by all members subject to the following conditions:

• The Saturday construction hours being amended

• The use of porous material being explored to build the playground rather than concrete

• Any trees knocked down to be replaced

• A school transport plan being put in place

• No traffic movement at peak school times

After the application was decided, Blackbrook councillor Linda Maloney MBE asked the council to assess parking issues around schools.

Cllr Maloney said: "Obviously across the borough we all have a massive problem with schools and parking.

"Can I suggest we send this problem over to the governors forum within the town hall to ask all governors in the town to look at the problem?"