Cheadle College has revealed ‘exciting’ plans for a £27m revamp of its site - including a new purpose-built college building and proposals for dozens of new homes. Bosses say the scheme would provide high quality facilities for students and staff at the Cheadle Road campus, in Cheadle Hulme, with those currently on offer now ‘dated and in need of refurbishment’
The new three-storey college - boasting two teaching wings either side of a central ‘heartspace’ - would be built to the north of the site, in an area currently used for informal football, according to an online consultation. Once the new college is up and running, students would transfer across, allowing the existing college to then be demolished, making way for up to 63 new family homes to be built in its place.
The online consultation says the current building is too large for the college’s requirements, as well as being ‘highly inefficient in terms of sustainability and energy’. “The facilities are now dated and in need of refurbishment to bring the building up to modern standards," it reads.
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"The teaching spaces require modernisation and reconfiguration to meet current future teaching needs. This cannot viably and practically be achieved with the ageing current buildings and therefore there is an exciting opportunity to build a new college with high quality facilities that can meet the needs of each department, greatly improving the quality of educational facilities for students.”
The government has awarded the Trafford College Group £20m to bring forward the proposals, with the group also investing an additional £7m in the scheme. Should planning permission be granted, it is hoped construction of the new college will begin this year.
The consultation adds: “The future scheme has the opportunity to provide a mix of homes, to help ease the pressure on housing in the area. This scheme will greatly assist in improving the local housing offer and be of significant benefit to those in the local community struggling with the current shortage of new homes.”
And it goes on to explain that the new college - positioned to the west of the existing vehicle entrance’ - would provide a more welcoming environment for staff, students and visitors, including ‘high quality’, specialist teaching spaces..
This would include:
- Specialist facilities for students 16-24 with SEND, allowing for growth in local provision for students with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs).
- Specialist facilities for students doing the new T Levels - technical-based qualifications developed with employers and businesses - focused on key sectors with skills shortages including health, care and education.
- New laboratories to support the delivery of specialist academic and technical qualifications.
- Bespoke learning resource centre and teaching facilities.
- New landscaping and growing space for horticulture
GI showing how a revamped Cheadle College campus could look. (Arcadis:)
Improved sports facilities, which retain the existing sports hall and gym
The proposal will also provide an artificial all-weather pitch in the south-west of the site. This could be played on all year round, allowing the sports curriculum to be fully accommodated on site, without the need for using community facilities.
The sports hall, gym and changing facilities at ground floor will be retained and improved as part of the development proposal. The upper floors are currently used as sport teaching spaces and will be modernised to provide two sports classrooms and a dance studio.
Existing trees and landscaping will be retained along the boundaries, maintaining existing habitats for birds and wildlife and visual screening to neighbouring properties.
Access and parking
The existing access to the site from the A5149 Cheadle Road will be retained and used for the new development. This access will continue to be used by all vehicles and pedestrians accessing the College.
According to Trafford College Group, Traffic modelling suggests that there would be a modest increase in trip generation from the new college -bu this ‘would not materially affect the operation of the site access onto Cheadle Road or junctions further afield’.
The existing rear college car parking would be retained, with new parking proposed to the south. In total 162 spaces would be provided (122 exclusively for the use of the College). Disabled parking spaces, cycle parking and Electric Vehicle charging points will be provided.
A dedicated drop off and pick up area will be provided to the south of the building, for high needs students.
New Family Homes
An ‘outline’ planning application, seeking permission for the principle of housing on the existing college site, once demolished, is expected to be made in June.
As the college does not have the expertise to design or build out a residential development - a housebuilder would develop the detailed plans and layouts for the residential scheme.
The application will provide technical assessments on the principle of up to 63 homes being built out on the site. However the detail will be provided by a developer in later ‘reserved matters’ applications to Stockport council.
Have Your Say
Trafford College Group says it is keen to hear residents' views - and these can be lodged via its consultation website at cheadle.ac.uk/corporate-information/public-consultation/
Alternatively, people can email their comments or queries to UKPlanningComments@wsp.com.
A drop-in session will be held at Cheadle College on Tuesday, June 6 between 4pm and 7pm - with the project team on hand to answer any questions.
The deadline for responses is Sunday, June 11. There will be a further opportunity to provide your views directly to the council once the planning application is submitted.
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