Agenda item

To consider the report of the Service Lead City Development.

The Assistant Service Lead City Development presented the application for the construction of a two storey primary school with a nursery and associated play areas, sports pitches and parking.

The Assistant Service Lead City Development advised that discussions were ongoing relating to sustainable drainage, landscaping and noise and, if Members were minded to approve the application, he requested delegated authority to do so after satisfactory resolution of these matters. He advised that the school would meet BREEAM “excellent” standards of sustainability which were the highest available and covered a range of issues including materials, renewable energy etc.

Sam Utting spoke in support of the application. He raised the following points:-

·         Primary Digital Academy, Monkerton is the second new school for the Cornerstone Academy Trust under the priority schools building programme. The Trust has run a successful school in Broadclyst and is opening a new school in Westclyst. Monkerton school is designed to support the use of interactive digital technology to enrich the national curriculum and create a culture of innovation;

·         the new school is unique and challenging with many constraints and opportunities defining how the design has been conceived with pragmatic solutions;

·         safeguarding is crucial to the position of the building on the site;

·         parking and drop-off is designed in line with best practice guidance, using data gathered from local schools to provide space for cars without impact on existing traffic movements;

·         extensive and careful landscape enhancements have been allowed, in particular the boundaries are retained and enhanced to encourage biodiversity;

·         the landscaping proposals have carefully manipulated the sloping site to maximise usable, flat play space with level access from the school building;

·         environmental sustainability measures include district heating, high levels of insulation, natural ventilation and an optimum amount of natural light;

·         the scheme will be constructed of high quality materials, the palette to include brick and metal cladding with aluminium windows with accent colours providing articulation; and

·         in summary, these proposals were developed in close collaboration with the Cornerstone Academy Trust, the Department for Education and Exeter City Council. This building is a good fit, an appropriate response to the challenges of the site, the school and the developing community in the area.

He responded as follows to Members’ queries:-

• it is legible as a public building distinct from the surrounding domestic architecture design;
• the school will be energy efficient although solar panels are not proposed at present; and
• colouring is copper rather than green and multi tone grey brick and it is likely that the head teacher will seek to involve pupils in adding their own mark to the premises.

The Service Lead City Development stated that the location of the school had been selected to ensure it was at the heart of the Monkerton urban extension, and therefore within a reasonable walking distance from local developments. In 2014 a planning permission was granted for a school for up to 630 pupils that would have resulted in higher traffic movements than would be the case for one involving 420 (plus 60 at nursery). The applicant’s highway experts had submitted additional information suggesting that they may have overestimated the number of car trips attracted to the school given that the available data from Exeter schools showed lower usage of cars than is the case at the county and national levels. There was no objection to the traffic impacts of the proposed school from the Local Highway Authority at Devon County Council.

Members urged use of energy efficient systems and noted that there would be one cycle only access into the site.

Safety of school children was paramount

A number of Members expressed concern that the new school, allied to the significant number of new developments, could lead to severe traffic problems including tailbacks as far as the Cumberland Way roundabout and logjams in the school itself during drop off and pick up periods. They were concerned that their previous concerns in respect of the amount, and management, of traffic attracted to the site and its impact on local roads remained and had not been addressed.

One Member referred to the need for a clear traffic management plan for vehicles dropping off and picking up children within the school site and another felt that comparing this school with data on the proportion of trips to the schools elsewhere in the city was misleading. They also rejected the view of the applicant’s highway experts that it was reasonable to expect that the number of car trips attracted to the site would be lower than those predicted in the Transport Assessment. A Member believed that because of the surrounding residential developments it was likely that the numbers in the school would in fact increase to the original number of 630 proposed with an associated increase in building size. Members asked for a further assessment of the traffic issues.

The Service Lead City Development summarised the concerns as scepticism regarding the number of car journeys to the site, capacity of the site access and wider concerns regarding the routing of vehicles around the site for safety reasons.

The recommendation was for delegated authority to approve, subject to the conditions as set out in the report.

A motion to defer the application for County Council and City Council officers to further consider the traffic and transport implications of the school was moved and seconded.

RESOLVED that planning permission for the construction of a two storey primary school with a nursery and associated play areas, sports pitches and parking be DEFERRED for further discussions between City Council officers and the Highways Authority on the concerns raised in respect of the traffic impacts of the school.