A new 630-place Primary School, up to forty homes, fifteen age-restricted properties and a 64-bed Care Home are coming to Midsomer Norton.

The land off Silver Street is outside the town’s development boundary, so everything except the school building was originally deemed “unacceptable in principle”.

But in a decision that was originally expected last year, B&NES Council’s planning officers said Norton Hill’s new Primary School would not be delivered without the housing, and that the benefits outweighed the harm.

They said: “The land is controlled by a single developer who has reached agreement with the Secretary of State for Education on behalf of the landowners to provide land for the provision of a new three-form entry primary school, subject to this planning application being granted planning permission.

“There is a clear case for the need for the Norton Hill Primary School and for its quick delivery. If this application is refused, the Secretary of State will not have a mechanism to secure the land, and the school is unlikely to be delivered.

“The development as a whole will allow for this school to be delivered, and the benefits of this, coupled with the additional benefits, are considered to outweigh the harm and justify a departure from the Development Plan.”

The 4.7-hectare site, next to Norton Hill Secondary School, is currently intensively farmed and outside of the town’s development boundary, but is allocated for a school in B&NES Council’s placemaking plan.

The application was submitted by LocatED, a Government-owned property company tasked with finding land for free schools, and Strategic Land Partnerships. As it was only an outline plan, full details of the affordable housing were not included, but Council Officers said they had been promised the 30 per cent required.

The latest proposals were met with eleven objections, with residents saying there are more suitable brownfield sites for the school, and that the development will result in extra traffic in an already congested area.

Sports England complained about the impact the plans would have on an existing playing field. Planning officers said the overall area of the field will be smaller, but the new school will have sports facilities that can be used by the community.

The application states: “The delivery of the new school is critical to the future provision of primary education within the local area. LocatED, on behalf of the Department for Education, has been working for some considerable time to identify a suitable site. The need to provide the new school remains acute.

“Funding is in place and agreement has now been reached to proceed with the planning application for the development as quickly as possible.”

The development is expected to create fifty new jobs in association with the new School and between sixty and eighty for the care home and sheltered housing. It will also see Silver Street widened to a consistent 6.2-metre width, enough for coaches to pass one another, and two new bus stops and a new pedestrian access would be created. Approving the plans, B&NES officers said the applicant will also be required to provide a new toucan signal-controlled pedestrian crossing on Charlton Road.

Readers may remember that a previous outline application to locate the school with 188 new homes near the White Post was rejected in 2016, with Silver Street chosen as an alternative, which will be within walking distance of Norton Hill School, with plans to provide footpaths and cycleways.

The team planning the new school told The Journal this week that they are delighted with the news. The new school’s Chair of Governors, Sharon Wiseman, said: “This is such good news. We will provide an exciting curriculum that will allow the children to have a state-of-the-art school and at the same time, have access to the resources and the teachers of the Secondary School. They can learn in a fantastic new building, and easily take advantage of specialist facilities, such as food technology rooms, science labs and PE facilities.”

The new Primary School will also be part of the ever-expanding Midsomer Norton Schools Partnership, which has announced this week that Beechen Cliff School, in Bath, will be joining (see Page 6). A further eight schools will be added too, including Writhlington School and the Dragonfly Trust.

Mark Thompson, Deputy CEO of the Trust and the person responsible for planning the new school, said: “We have been waiting for this moment. We are so pleased with this decision, which will basically provide several million pounds of investment in a brand new state-of-the art school for local children.

“With nearly 2,500 new homes being built or about to be built in the Somer Valley area, we want to play our part so that every parent or carer has access to a high quality school place for their child. We now have the chance to plan something really special for children in the local area.”

It is anticipated that the new school will open to Reception pupils in September 2020, dependent upon obtaining detailed planning permission in the Spring of next year. Once built, it will have the space to grow to three forms of entry in future, as numbers in the area increase.

Find out about planning applications that affect you by visiting the Public Notice Portal.

S. Sumner LDR & B. Brooks