Warren Wood School Nursery Plan Goes AheadEarlier this evening, a planning application came before the council's planning (development control) xommittee for the work at Warren Wood C P School in Arethusa Road.
This was after public consultation on the school's new plans, which include building a new nursery, demolishing old wooden huts and improving the language school facilities. It is reported that the public response was 70% in favour of the school's plans. Thus the policy was approved and a planning application subsequently made, and it was this application that first came before the Development Control committee three weeks ago.
Although ward members had received hardly any contact from residents over this matter, the sheer number of letters of objection (71) and a 101-signature petition opposig the planning application prompted ward councillor Ron Hewett (our education expert) to attend the committee meeting and ask for a members' site visit to be held.
This was agreed, and the site visit was held in the early evening of Thursday 11th August. Unfortunatley, this event was marred by getting caught up mainly in non-planning matters, though these were fielded by representatives of the education authority.
Ward members feel that, although it is perhaps a little late now to ahieve a great deal on the education policy aspects of this whole issue, and especially the effects on the Kloisters Kindergarten private nursery that lives on part of the school site, we should offer to hold a public meeting for residents once everyone is back from summer holidays.
As far as the planning application itself was concerned, there were no substantive grounds for refusal, so ward member John Ward spoke on this at the committee meeting to ask for two improvements to be added as additional conditions: passing bays to avoid problems in Arethusa Road when cars need to pass, which they cannot do at present; and low-level safety lighting that will not encroach on adjacent residents' properties. These were agreed on a majority vote, though a few members of the committee did not want these requirements.