brentwood.gov.uk

Infrastructure Planning -
General education comments -
Page 7: paragraph 19 - As recognised in this paragraph, sufficient work has yet to be undertaken to accurately assess the impact of growth on education infrastructure. It is critical that this takes place whilst the Regulation 19 plan is prepared. A full scenario test identifying the location of and likely unit mix of all allocation sites and permitted development is needed. BBC will need to provide ECC with this information in line with section 3.4 of our 'Planners' Guide to School Organisation'. Once ECC has received this information and completed the assessment, a realistic IDP for education can be prepared and agreed. Discussions with ECC are therefore vitally important to ensure that this growth is planned, phased, properly funded and delivered in an efficient and coherent manner. For information relevant sections of the ECC response to the 2016 Draft Local Plan are included below.

Where growth is to be located it will be essential to ensure the delivery of education facilities is undertaken in a timely and phased manner. Additional school places can be provided either by the expansion of existing schools/ academies or the opening of new "free schools" or academies. Existing schools and academies can only be expanded if they have sufficient site area to do so. In many cases existing school/ academy sites are restricted and cannot, therefore, be expanded easily without the provision of additional land. This is often impracticable in urban areas as schools are located within the existing built up area. In many rural areas schools are on restricted sites but there may be land adjacent to the existing school/ academy site that could be utilised to enable expansion.

Whilst faith schools and academies may have sufficient site area to expand this would need the agreement of the Anglican Diocese of Chelmsford/Roman Catholic Diocese of Brentwood/ the academy trusts responsible for these schools/ academies. This is particularly relevant as a significant proportion of schools/ academies located within the borough are faith schools.

As indicated, ECC can identify those locations, particularly in rural areas, where scope exists to expand existing schools/ academies without the provision of additional land. In those areas where expansion opportunities are limited, sites for new schools should be identified within or close to the proposed developments. If existing schools cannot be expanded or growth is insufficient to provide a new school, it will be necessary for ECC to seek contributions from developers towards meeting the cost of providing transport between homes and schools.

The scale of expansion of existing schools/academies is also important. The majority of primary schools are organised in classes of 30 pupils to comply with infant class size limits. It is easier, more cost effective and better from an organisational perspective to expand primary schools by a full form of entry (30 pupils per year group) or half a form of entry (15 pupils per year group) than it is to accommodate a smaller number of pupils. On this basis it is often easier and more cost effective to ensure that there is a sufficient supply of school places for larger scale housing developments than it is for relatively small scale developments, particularly in rural areas. Sustainable home-to-school travel and transport and the location of development sites to ensure viability to fund schools will need further consideration.