Plans for a £17m new special school that will ‘change lives’ in Stockport have been boosted by the ‘wholehearted support’ of local councillors. Dubbed Pear Tree Academy, the secondary school includes places for up to 133 pupils with profound, severe and multiple learning difficulties, as well as those with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD).
Proposals for the ‘much-needed’ specialist facility - to be built on the vacant former Orrishmere Primary School site, in Cheadle Hulme - will go before the council’s planning committee for approval on Thursday night. Local authority bosses are forecasting a shortfall of 120 secondary places for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) over the next five years.
Planners say the new school ‘would be a significant benefit’ given the number of children currently being sent out-of-borough for an education - saving the council £30k per pupil, per year - as well as benefiting children and their families. And members of Cheadle area committee threw their support behind the proposals at an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday night.
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Coun Jilly Julian, who represents Cheadle Hulme North, said the school would make a ‘huge difference’ for many people. I’m having conversations with multiple families in the ward who are going to really benefit from this as well,” said the Lib Dem. "There are people for whom this is going to change their lives, right on the doorstep of this development."
They’ve been in that position where the choice is to make really untenable journeys outside of the borough or to basically have their child at home and not in an education or socialising environment that is going to give so much benefit to them. It can’t happen quickly enough.”
The scheme includes a total of 54 parking spaces, 12 cycle spaces and two minibus bays. There is also a one-way system for school traffic and nine minibus drop-off bays.
Coun Julian said it was natural for residents' concerns to ‘veer towards’ the potential impact on roads because of the ‘high concentration of traffic at certain times of day’. But she said the ‘level of rigour’ that had gone into the plans and the involvement of the community and councillors was ‘hugely reassuring’.
“It feels very positive it will make a huge difference very genuinely to a lot of people who are on the doorstep as well as to people who are going to be worried about who is going to be parking outside their house.” Coun Tom Morrison, her Lib Dem ward colleague, was similarly supportive, voicing his enthusiasm to ‘get that site developed’.
And Labour ward councillor David Meller also expressed his ‘wholehearted support’ for the plans. “To do away with the Orrishmere site which has lain derelict for so long and caused so many issues - like the anti-social behaviour referenced before - and do something incredibly important and positive for the borough is excellent,” he said.
“We have a significant shortage of SEND places within the borough and the fact is at the moment we are having to take children out of the borough - some of our most vulnerable young children - because we can’t provide the necessary places here. This will largely address that in a significant way.”
Coun Meller also voiced his approval of the design, telling the meeting it would bring ‘a lot of low quality open space to life’. “It’s going to have a positive impact on the lives of young children and hopefully residents will appreciate it as well,” he added.
Plans for Pear Tree Academy came about after the council successfully bid for government cash to create a new SEND secondary school in the area. It will be a ‘free school’ run by Prospere Learning Trust, which worked with Spatial Initiative Limited and the Department for Education to draw up the plans.
Brian Kavanagh, speaking on behalf of the applicant said a lot of hard work had gone into the school plans and he believed the scheme was ‘a fantastic one’. He added that the trust was ‘open’ to the community having access to the school’s facilities, but didn’t want to commit to specific hours until the level of interest had been gauged.
Cheadle area committee met on Monday night (September 26). Stockport council’s planning and highways committee meets on Thursday night (September 29).
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