New schools for Preston: councillors claim they are being put in the wrong place as public consultation gets under way

The claim comes after Lancashire County Council launched a public consultation into proposals to create primary and secondary facilities to help meet a forecast shortfall in pupil places over the coming years.

However, neither of the suggested sites are on land that has already been safeguarded for new schools as part of the housing developments that are contributing to the demand for extra capacity.

Education bosses have proposed that an eventual 600-pupil secondary establishment should rise from the remnants of Tulketh High School, which shut the doors of its Tag Lane base in Ingol almost 15 years ago.

They have also earmarked land at Cottam Hall, off Merry Trees Lane – behind the Ancient Oak pub – for the primary facility, which would, over a phased period, ultimately provide 210 places.

The county council says that the two sites have been chosen to form the basis of its consultation, because they are under its own control and so could be developed within the timeframe that the additional places are needed – by September 2025.

But over the last two years, planning applications have been approved for new estates which have required housebuilders to reserve part of their plots for school facilities that were promised as part of the North West Preston Masterplan – a 2017 document drawn up to guide the huge volume of homes to be built in the area in the space of two decades.

Councillors have told the Lancashire Post that those sites would be more suitable for new schools, because they lie closer to where many of the pupils who will attend them actually live – and so would cut down the need for them to travel.

John Potter, the Liberal Democrat county councillor for the Preston West division, said that the roads being built to serve the North West Preston housing developments are “miles away” from the former Tulketh High site.

“Are we really wanting all that traffic – with the associated pollution, congestion and safety concerns – to go down Tag Lane, Woodplumpton Road and Cadley Causeway or use the proposed Cottam Brickworks development as a cut through?

“The closure of the old Tulketh High School was a controversial one at the time, but redeveloping the site as a school now doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense. It was specifically ruled out only a few years ago, so what has changed?

“Aren’t we trying to get parents to stop using their cars to take their kids to school?” County Cllr Potter asked.

As part of planning permission granted by Preston City Council in January this year, land was earmarked for a secondary facility within a 320-home development east of Sandy Lane and west of Tabley Lane in Higher Bartle - almost one-and-a-half miles from the now proposed Tulketh High plot.

Space for a primary school was also carved out of an estate of 200 homes to the north of Tabley Lane - just under a mile from the suggested Cottam Hall site in the consultation - when that development was approved in November 2020.

Trevor Hart, Ingol and Cottam ward councillor on the city authority, said he could not understand why those two previously eyed locations were not being put forward as the “preferred options” in the county council’s public consultation.

He told the Post that the principle of “local schools for local children” should be “the starting point” for all decisions about expanding capacity.

“If we follow that logic through and look at all the new housing developments taking place [in] the Maxy Farm area, between Hoyles Lane and Woodplumpton, then that’s where we need to build new schools – because it would serve all of that new development.

“I know with secondary school children that they will use buses and travel further and you do expect [that], hence there [being] fewer secondary schools than primary. But in terms of primary schools, where parents have to take their children to school and they cannot send them on their own, then ideally you want as many of those children as possible to be able to walk there.

“Families from all those new housing estates over Maxy Farm way, are not going to walk from there over to the [proposed Cottam Hall site]. They will all get in the car – and you’d get all of that traffic coming and piling around by the Ancient Oak.

“It doesn’t make sense not to put [a new school] in the heart of the area it’s serving, but on the edge of another area that’s already got a school and one that’s looking to expand,” Cllr Hart added.

That was a reference to a proposed expansion of Cottam Primary School, whose governors last week announced that the school was working with Lancashire County Council to develop a proposal to gradually and permanently increase the number of pupils from 210 to 420 by admitting 60 children each year instead of 30, from September 2024.

A consultation also recently closed into the proposed expansion of Lea Community Primary, which, if approved, would also eventually create an additional 210 places in a similar fashion.

At a county council cabinet meeting in October – when the go-ahead was given to begin that consultation and those relating to the proposed new schools – members were told that the Preston Rural, Preston North and Preston West primary school place planning areas were being considered collectively, because new housing and the popularity of existing schools, were creating widespread demand for places.

A consultation into a second new Preston primary school – in the Goosnargh and Grimsargh with Longridge place planning areas – was also approved. The Post understands that that process will begin early in the new year, with the results of all three new school consultations being brought back to cabinet in April 2023.

Pressure on places at the 10 existing secondary schools in Preston is stemming, in part, from a previous increase in pupils at primary level who are now moving through to the secondary phase of their education.

Tulketh Community Sports College, as it was known by the time of its closure, shut down in the summer of 2008 because of falling pupil numbers. Nine years later, its rebirth was rejected in the North West Preston Masterplan because, at that point, its catchment area was not deemed in need of additional place provision.

The site – where the crumbling building still stands – was also intended to be sold, but ended up remaining in Lancashire County Council’s ownership. Meanwhile, the Cottam Hall plot, where the new primary school has been proposed, has been secured from the government agency Homes England.

Lancashire County Council told the Post that its control of the two plots was key in its decision to consult over their use for new schools.

A spokesperson said: “Due to the timing involved in delivering a new school, it was necessary for [the authority] to consult on the site options available to us.”

They added that the locations reserved for schools as part of the planning permissions granted in the Higher Bartle area remained “viable options for future new school delivery” and stressed that Tulketh High had always been identified as “an alternative option” for a new secondary school.

Conservative cabinet member for education and skills, Jayne Rear, added that new schools had to be proposed to satisfy the increasing demand for places.

“New housing means that many more families are moving into these areas. We are expanding existing schools to meet the demands over the next few years, but many more places are needed from 2025. New schools are the only way we can provide these.

“It is crucial we give people the opportunity to share their views, please ensure that you take part and help to shape the outcome of these proposals.”

That sentiment was echoed by Cllr Hart, who said he would be making his own views known – and encouraged others to do the same.

“I think a strong message needs to go to Lancashire County Council that says: ‘It’s brilliant that you’re going to build new schools, but they need to be in the right place – and you’re choosing the wrong place,’” he said.

Meanwhile, County Cllr Potter – who last year called for housebuilding to be halted in the North West Preston area if the promised infrastructure to accompany it did not begin to materialise – said that he was pleased that progress was finally being made in the process to establish new schools, but he added:

“Many residents in the area will be surprised at the locations put forward by Lancashire County Council.

“Given how important it is to get these school locations right, the Conservatives need to come out and clearly give their reasons and answer the questions that we, and others, are asking.”

The North West Preston Masterplan included indicative plots for two new primary schools and a secondary school to meet the needs of the 5,500 households to be created in the area across the 20 years to the mid-2030s.

New planning applications would be required for those parts of the Higher Bartle sites reserved for schools if proposals for alternative uses were ever brought forward.

A spokesperson from Preston City Council said that the authority will "continue to work with Lancashire County Council to ensure new schools are delivered in the right locations to meet the needs of the city’s residents”.

NEW SCHOOL BLUEPRINTS

Both of the proposed new schools would be delivered by Lancashire County Council and partially funded by contributions from housing developers required of them as part of their planning permissions.

However, under government rules for creating new education facilities, the establishments will have to be academies or free schools, meaning that they will not be under the control of the county council – even though the authority is responsible for commissioning them. County Hall is obliged to ensure that there are sufficient places in maintained schools for every pupil who needs one.

The requirement to create only academies and free schools also means that the county council will have to search for suitable sponsors who will ultimately operate the facilities once they open. The government will get the final say, but the local authority will operate an assessment process before making its own recommendation to the Education Secretary about who should run the schools.

HAVE YOUR SAY

The consultations over the proposed new schools will run on the Lancashire County Council's website until 5pm on 22nd January, 2023.

A public engagement event is also being held at Ingol Library between 4pm and 6pm on 9th January, 2023, when officers from the authority will be available to answer any queries regarding their plans.