Stockport is to get a new £17m special school after 'much-needed' plans were signed off by town hall bosses. Named Pear Tree Academy, the secondary school will provide places for up to 133 pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including children who have autism.
Based at the old Orrishmere Primary School site, in Cheadle Hulme, the scheme took a big step forward when members of Cheadle area committee unanimously backed the plans last Monday, describing them as ‘life changing’. And it was given the full go-ahead by the council’s planning committee when it met Stockport town hall just three days later.
Coun Roy Driver told the meeting he ‘welcomed the scheme’. “It’s obviously fulfilling a significant need providing SEND education.," he said.
READ MORE: Historic railway building and eight-storey roundhouse could create ‘landmark’ Stockport apartments
Plans for Pear Tree Academy came about after the council successfully bid for government cash to create a new SEND secondary school. A ‘free school’, it will be run by Prospere Learning Trust which has four other schools in south Manchester.
The council is forecasting a shortfall of 120 secondary places for SEND children over the next five years. As well as benefiting some of the borough’s most vulnerable children and their families, it is also forecast to save the council £30k per pupil, per year.
Coun Wendy Meikle also spoke in favour of the proposals during the meeting - noting a recent town hall review had ‘proved there was a need for more places for young people with special educational needs’. “I know we have got the Lisburne [SEND] school [at the former Offerton Primary School site], that should be built, hopefully, by the end of next year - if not early 2024," she said. “This one is much needed and for the young people it prevents a lot of them having to travel outside the borough - which puts another pressure on budgets with the school transport.”
Coun Meikle, who is deputy leader of the council, also described the facilities - including habitat areas, sensory gardens and a Multi Use Games Area - as being ‘tailor made for the young people that will be using it’. However, she did have some misgivings over the design of the new school.
“I’m a little disappointed it’s got a flat roof,” she told the panel. “It’s a modular build, I would have liked something a little bit more substantial.”
Coun Brian Bagnall said he had some sympathy with Coun Meikle’s concerns, but noted they were sitting on a planning committee ‘not a design committee’. Proposing to approve the application, he added: “This site has been closed for seven years now and the nursery has been gone for three. I think we need to crack on with this.”
The committee unanimously agreed to grant planning permission. Stockport council planning and highways committee met at the town hall on Thursday (September 29).
Read more of today's top stories here
READ NEXT:
- Husband, 35, who "on the face of it, has normal existence", stalked seven women including schoolgirls from his car in terrifying 90 minute rampage
- Cyclist dad-of-two left with horrific injuries in 'hit-and-run' crash captured on CCTV
- Greater Manchester hour-by-hour weather forecast for today
- Greggs is giving away FREE hot drinks and bakes worth £4 for certain customers
- University of Salford removes student nurses from NHS mental health unit under investigation by police
