Newcastle City Council - Waverdale proposals

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Building a Bright Future for Local Community and Schools

Building Schools for the Future
Proposal
What would these proposals mean for the community and schools?
Where we are now
Next steps
Final decision
Contact details

Building Schools for the Future

You may already be aware that Newcastle City Council is currently working with it local education partner Aura Newcastle Ltd and local schools to build and improve buildings with £180 million of government funding. This is part of the national Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme that aims to provide first rate quality schools for all secondary aged young people. It also aims to transform the way that young people learn and are taught so that they achieve higher standards in highly regarded local schools.

Proposal

Sir Charles Parsons School and Walker Technology College are looking forward to gain from the second stage of the Newcastle BSF programme. Both now have the opportunity of moving into brand new school buildings by 2011.  Sir Charles Parsons School will remain on their existing site with a new Walker Technology College on the southern end of Waverdale to the east of Sir Charles Parsons in a parkland setting.

The City Council owns Waverdale. The land is currently unused because of industrial contamination. The proposal includes making the contamination safe before building begins, and remove risk to anyone during decontamination work or afterwards when the schools are in use. In fact the work will provide a safe, fully landscaped parkland setting for everyone in the community to enjoy and use.

This option is new and was not available when local residents were asked their views on the possible future of Waverdale but looks to support these wishes. The Department for Children Schools and Family support this proposal and the funding to provide Walker Technology College with an entirely new school to build on the strong tradition of the old building on Middle Street.

The proposal is for two separate schools, Sir Charles Parsons School and Walker Technology College, located close to each other and retaining their own identities on the Waverdale site.

The Governing Bodies of both schools are fully supportive of these proposals.

What would these proposals mean for the community and schools?

1) Community

a) Community Consultation.

Last years independent survey produced the following results:-

• A quarter of the households use the open space on an occasional basis as a means of cutting through to destinations.
• There was a clear preference among residents for the area to be developed as a formal parkland area and as a wildlife area (over 80 %).
• A significant percentage of residents supported the creation of football pitches (56%) and to a lesser extent golf course/driving facilities (40%).
• A significant percentage of residents also objected to creation of football pitches (30%) and golf course/driving facilities (50%).
• The majority of residents did not want the open space to be left as it is, advocating the development of the open space in preference to leaving it in the current condition.
• The key point of the conclusions of the survey is that “the majority of residents DO NOT want the open space left as it is, advocating development in preference to stagnation’.
• The survey also showed support for the development of new community facilities, particularly involving sport and those aimed at children and young people as well as adults on the Waverdale site. 

• Following 2 public consultations meetings in October 2008 over the proposals for the co-location of the 2 schools the following concerns were expressed:-
• location of service road adjacent to rear of Ennerdale Rd
• proximity of the proposed buildings to the houses in Ennerdale Rd
• maintaining the current secure boundary to those houses bordering the Sir Charles Parsons’ site
• control and management of pupil access to the new schools
• traffic management in regard to pupil drop off and vehicular movement on Ennerdale Rd
• traffic management in regard to the mini bus transport for Sir Charles Parsons on Westbourne Ave
• open Space – Potential loss but also how will it be secured from anti social behaviour?
• proximity of sports pitches next to Wyedale Housing
• overlooking existing houses from new Walker Technology College
• contamination containment.

b) Community Proposals

1) To address last years independent survey:

Officers in Leisure Services and Children’s Services are working with Community Safety Officers, Aura landscape and structural designers and the Groundwork Trust (a charitable organisation specialising in open space development) to develop a scheme for the site. Groundworks are organising a short public consultation programme with associated publicity and drop-ins in local schools and Community Facilities and their report on the outcomes of the programme will be used to develop the scheme to provide:-

• a managed solution for parkland, wildlife and Habitat areas with open space access
• improved landscaping
• improved and safe formal access and pathways through the site
• restricted access points to prevent motorcycle or other vehicular use
• controlled community sports amenities to Sport of England standards.

In addition if identified as part of the consultation

• woodland walks
• enhanced wildlife/ecology aspects.

2) To address concerns from the 2 public meetings

As an immediate response the Aura designers amended the service road location between the 1st meeting and the 2nd to a more central location.

To maintain the listening process and ensure the elements of the public consultations are addressed the BSF project team and Aura designers are working closely with officers from Public Health and Environment, Highways and Transportation, Leisure Services, Planning & Community Safety. This comprehensive team are planning further consultations which will follow the result of the site survey in early February 2009 to enable you to express your views and suggestions.

 

2) Schools

a) School consultation

• As part of the Building Schools for the Future programme Sir Charles Parsons and Walker Technology College have engaged in discussions on proposals for new schools.
• Both schools currently work together to help their students benefit in a number of ways and the consultation process demonstrated that more planned joint working on a co-located site will further improve their learning.

b) School Proposals

• New school buildings with state of the art teaching and learning spaces.
• Some shared facilities such as an energy centre will help to meet environmental needs and make more efficient use of resources.
• Revised traffic management plan to reduce the impact of the current Sir Charles Parsons’ mini bus use.
• The Building Schools for the Future project isn’t just about replacing old buildings with new ones – it’s about transforming the way our children and young people learn and the way they feel about their schools.
• A recent report for the National Foundation for Educational Research discovered just how much of an impact new school buildings have on transforming children’s attitudes to learning  -showing massive increases in the number of children who feel proud of their school, who enjoy school more, and who are planning to stay in education longer after transformation work at their schools.
• The schools believe that these plans will allow us to transform the school experience for students and improve academic achievement and standards at the schools even further.
• Provide community access to the new buildings for further education, training, meetings, social, sport and leisure uses.
• The co-location of the 2 schools offers more opportunities to enhance the quality of existing provision to the benefit of all pupils, parents, staff, residents and, not least, the local community.

You may also visit each school at any other time to find out about the plans and talk to the Headteacher. The ideas will be considered at future meetings of Ward Committees. Please have your say so that the development captures the needs of the community and is an improvement for all.

Where we are now

At the present time no decision has been taken by the Council to proceed with this project.  The Council is working with Aura to explore and develop a proposal capable of being taken forward for planning permission. This will not happen until there is satisfactory resolution of the following points:-

• Site investigations have been undertaken and the results are expected shortly. These will determine whether or not any building work is possible.
• Leisure Services through the Groundwork Trust are to begin a consultation process in relation to wildlife, habitation and environmental improvements and the development of a management plan.
• Design proposals are being worked through with both schools.
• Initial consultations on the designs have taken place.
• Relocation of the trotting track.
• Access, traffic management, including improved pathways and cycle ways considered and agreed with the Council’s highways and transport officers.
• A satisfactory Environmental impact Assessment for the planning process.
• Community safety proposals.

Next Steps

• site investigation report
• conclusion of the Environmental Impact Assessment
• consultations:-
• on design of buildings
• access and traffic proposals
• wildlife and environmental proposals and management
• community safety
• Subject to satisfying the statutory planning authority’s requirements submit a planning application covering the whole of the site to deliver the new schools and other environmental issues from the outcome of the consultations.

Final Decision

This will be the outcome of the planning process and this is not expected until 3 months after submission of a planning application.

Contact Details

BSF Project Office, Civic Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne NE99 2BN 
Phone: 0191  211 6604
E-mail: bsf@newcastle.gov.uk

Bill Potts, Newcastle City Council BSF Commercial Manager
Phone: 0191  277 7670

Steven Gater, Headteacher, Walker Technology College, Middle Street, Walker, NE6 4BY
Phone: 0191 262 0911

Nick Sharing, Headteacher, Sir Charles Parsons, Westbourne Ave, Walker, NE6 4ED
Phone: 0191 263 0261