A major expansion of a Liverpool school to address increasing pupil numbers will go-ahead.
A new two-storey classroom block is to be built on land at Liverpool College in Mossley Hill as the school expands its Year 7 cohort from September. With an additional 180 pupils expected to come through the school in the next six years, a further eight classrooms are to be constructed following approval from Liverpool Council.
To make way for the new block, an existing groundsman’s cottage and garages will be demolished. The cottage was previously used for storage, however has been left vacant for a number of years.
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The local authority planning committee was told by Louise Sheridan, of Ellis Williams Architects on behalf of Liverpool College, "vital scheme for the school" and "urgently needed" for the new cohort in September. Liverpool College is an all-through age 4 to 19, state funded, mixed ability, single academy school.
It currently employs approximately 210 staff and caters for 1,630 pupils with boarding for 18 pupils aged 16-19. The classroom block would be positioned adjacent to the access road following, in the main, the lines of the cottage and an existing boundary wall.
The proposals to increase the school roll has triggered a requirement for a series of off-site highway improvements including the upgrading of the footpath link through to Ibbotson’s Lane, a pedestrian crossing on North Mossley Hill Road and measures to control parking on Queens Drive.
Councillors also gave their backing to plans for a drive-thru coffee shop at the Asda supermarket on Smithdown Road. Opening between 7am and 11pm, the single storey development would include a new pedestrian entrance to be created from Smithdown Road to the north, with the main vehicular access from the existing mini-roundabout.
The proposals were met with criticism by ward member Cllr Laura Robertson-Collins. She said she wanted to see more active travel options amid "massively increasing private car use in that area." The cabinet member said the scheme would also encourage more car usage around Smithdown Road, adding how traffic is "absolutely chronic" and at "bursting point" despite the report indicating car use being down since 2012.
Cllr Billy Lake said he felt the scheme should not be “scapegoated” for pollution and car usage, given its proximity to a major road.
Plans to install a replica of a historic monument outside the Mersey Tunnels also won committee approval. In 1934, an obelisk created by Herbert James Rowse was placed to mark the start of the Liverpool side of the tunnels connecting the city with the Wirral.
A second one was positioned in Birkenhead at the Wirral entrance, but its sister monument on Liverpool's Old Haymarket no longer exists. Plans put forward by Merseytravel will reinstate the statue, as well as relocating two green toll booths from George’s Dock Building Plaza.
Speaking in support of the plans, ward member Cllr NickSmall said he and Cllr Christine Banks had worked alongside residents and businesses in Old Haymarket around the plans, describing it as an "underutilised part of the city centre which is a really important gateway."
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