Welcome to the consultation website for the redevelopment plans for St Thomas C.E. Primary School, Leigh.

Following a period pre-application consultation last year, a planning application was submitted to Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council in August 2023. Members of the public can view the full planning application via the Council’s planning portal using Planning Reference No: A/23/96040/MAJOR.

This website was used during the pre-application period and provided members of the public with an opportunity to review the plans and provide feedback to be considered by the project team prior to the submission of the planning application.

Project background

In February 2021 St Thomas C.E. Primary School together with the Council successfully bid for major capital funding from the Department for Education (DfE) to improve the learning environment for the pupils as part of the Schools Rebuilding Programme (SRP).

Each bid was assessed, and buildings prioritised according to their condition. St Thomas C.E Primary School was selected as one of the first 50 schools nationwide to be prioritised and in need of urgent investment.

The proposal is to develop a new purpose-built school on the Hawkhurst Street playing field site close to the existing site. This avoids the need for temporary classroom accommodation, which is highly impactful on student’s learning, costly, and reduces the area available for external play.

Subject to the granting of planning permission, once the new school is ready, the move would be made to the new site and the existing school buildings would be demolished. Works would then be undertaken to deliver new public open space on the existing site.

Background

For the last two years, the school have been working closely with the DfE and the appointed project team, led by Tilbury Douglas Construction to consider the best options for redevelopment of the school.

From the options that were considered the proposed development (outlined on this website) enables the delivery of a modern fit for purpose learning environment for pupils whilst also ensuring the least amount of disruption for our existing pupils, parents and staff during the construction phase of the new school.

Existing site issues and challenges

How the proposed school addresses this issue

Poor learning environment for pupils

The new school will include high quality teaching facilities including state of the art classroom designs and high quality finishes throughout

Rising maintenance costs

Designed to minimise maintenance costs

Poor energy efficiency

Solar panels allow for provision of net zero carbon school, massively reducing operating costs

Insufficient external hard play areas

New school includes hard play areas designed to accord with DfE standards

Parking issues

Increased parking on site and provision of a drop off/pick up facility

Site security and logistics challenges

Improved layout and boundary fencing allowing improved safety and security, and ease of access for delivery vehicles

Challenges of teaching/supervision across multiple buildings

New purpose built single school building allows easy supervision and reduces time spent transferring pupils/teachers to multiple buildings

Impractical access to green space and playing fields

Direct access to greenspace from the school

Located roughly 0.3 miles to the North of the existing school. The site is split into two, with the eastern half used by the school as playing fields currently with local football clubs using the sports pitches outside of school hours. The western side of the site is currently open to the public and utilised for dog walking etc. The proposed site measures approximately 10,040 m² / 2.48 acres / 1.004 hectares.

There is an existing car park and changing facility on the North West corner of the proposed site accessed off Hawkhurst Street. The changing block is not currently used by the school and is primarily used by sports teams using the pitches outside of school hours.

St Thomas’ Church of England Primary School is located within the town of Leigh, and is part of the Wigan Metropolitan Borough.

The school provides education for up to 420 children aged 4-11 including SEND provision for up to 70 children. The school is voluntary aided through the Church of England and the Diocese of Manchester.

The school is currently on a split-site which is made up of 4 teaching buildings. The buildings are a mixture of Victorian era brick built blocks and 1970s period brick built buildings. There are a series of extensions and alterations to each of the buildings which has resulted in a highly constrained site. The existing school site measures approximately 5,624 m² / 1.38 acres / 0.56 hectares.  The site is bounded on 3 sides by residential properties with the main entrance being located off Astley Street to the East, which operates a one-way system. To the North, there are allotments and a small beck.

An image showing the site location plan
  • If planning is granted for the new school, the school will remain on the existing site whilst the new school building is being built.
  • Subject to receiving the necessary planning consents once the new school is ready, the move would be made to the new school. The estimated timescales for this (subject to planning) would be circa 12 months, with construction starting in January 2024 and handover planned for February 2025.
  • The Pre-School Nursery would remain on the existing site and is unaffected by the proposals.
  • In addition to providing feedback on the plans for the new school at Hawkhurst Street, stakeholders and members of the public will also be invited to provide feedback for the new public open space proposals for the existing site.
  • The project team will consider all feedback received as part of the pre-application consultation undertaken, prior to the submission of the planning applications.
An aerial plan image showing the early design concepts

Proposals

The proposals are for the creation of a new purpose-built school on the Hawkhurst playing fields site close to the existing school site. The new school will accommodate a similar number of pupils as it does now. The old school site will be demolished once pupils have moved across to the new building, making way for a new area of public open space to be created.

It is acknowledged that the proposed site is currently greenfield space utilised by the public and as such, whilst the proposals also include the creation of an area of open space at the former school site, the project team are also in discussions with the council and Sport England regarding an appropriate mitigation strategy to off-set the loss of the area of playing field. Further details about this will be made available in due course The larger playing field at Hawkhurst Street is marked out for football pitches and is formally used by East Leigh Junior Football Club. This pitch, and the changing facilities, will remain unaffected by the proposals.

The new building would be a two-storey construction, balancing the requirements to optimise external play provision and internal classroom provision, with the need minimise impact on surrounding residents.

The car park entrance will be located off Hawkhurst Street. a new pupil drop-off and pick up bay will be created parallel to the street.

This proposed development solution enables the delivery of a modern fit for purpose learning environment for pupils whilst also ensuring the least amount of disruption for existing pupils, parents and staff during the construction phase of the new school.

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An aerial CGI image of the proposed development An aerial CGI image of the proposed development
An image showing the proposed school site plan
An image showing the ground floor plan An image showing the first floor plan

A single building is proposed, comprising of a 2 storey general teaching block, and a single storey block which houses the school hall and kitchen.

2 Storey General Teaching Block

  • 2 No. Reception Classrooms
  • 8 No. Juniors Classrooms
  • Studio Hall
  • SEND & Learning Resource Spaces
  • 4 No. Infants Classrooms
  • 2 No. SEND Classrooms
  • 1 No. Practical Classroom
  • Staff & Administrative Spaces
  • Storage & Ancillary Space

Single Storey Block

  • School Hall & Dining Room
  • Plant & Servicing Spaces
  • Kitchen and Support Spaces
  • Storage & Ancillary Spaces
An image showing the proposed landscape plan
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  • Creation of a high-quality learning environment and sports facilities for children.
  • Avoidance of temporary classroom strategy by construction of new school off-site. Avoids disruption to pupils.
  • Creation of a net zero carbon school utilising a solar panel roof and separate canopy, and air source heat pumps.
  • Creation of a building with a long life span, as opposed to refurbishing existing building which would not achieve long-term Net Zero Carbon in Operation targets.
  • New public open space created on the existing school site.
  • Improved site access for pick up and drop off.

Technical considerations

The planning application will include a full suite of technical documents, including;

  • Detailed plan package
  • Design and Access Statement
  • Planning statement
  • Statement of Community Involvement
  • Topographic Survey
  • Unexploded Ordnance Survey
  • Phase I Site Investigation
  • Phase II Site Investigation
  • Demolition & Construction Phasing Plan
  • Arboricultural Survey and Impact Assessment
  • Biodiversity Net Gain Assessment
  • Preliminary Ecological Assessment
  • Bat surveys
  • Crime Impact Statement
  • Flood Risk Assessment & Drainage Strategy
  • Lighting Impact Assessment
  • Energy Statement
  • Transport Assessment
  • Travel Plan
  • Noise Impact Assessment

To support the planning application, an ecology report, and bat surveys will be submitted, to assess the potential of the proposals to impact on habitats and protected species. In addition, the new school and area of open space will be designed in order to achieve a 10% net gain in biodiversity and this will be demonstrate through the submission of a Biodiversity Net Gain report.

A tree survey and impact assessment will also be provided with the application, which will consider how the development may impact on existing trees (on both the existing and proposed school site), and how these can be protected.

A noise impact assessment will be submitted with the planning application, to demonstrate that the proposals do not create an unacceptable impact on residential amenity (via noise break out) and to demonstrate that the surrounding uses do not create an unacceptable noise level internally in the school (noise break in).

A transport assessment and travel plan will be submitted with the planning application. The transport assessment will assess the impact of the proposal on the local highway network, confirm whether parking arrangements are sufficient, that there is sufficient turning space for vehicles to enter and exit the site, and that the drop off and pick up bay works effectively. The assessment will also consider the sustainable transport options within the locality of the site, including walking and cycling.

The assessment will be supported by detailed parking surveys that have taken place in the locality of both the existing school site and proposed new school. Surveys of staff and parents of pupils at St Thomas’ have also been conducted, to ensure we know how many staff and parents travel to the site via car, walking, cycling or public transport.

A travel plan will also support the planning application. This document is a long-term strategy which aims to encourage people to use alternatives to cars. A travel plan typically includes any identified travel issues which need to be addressed, details of how people travel to the site, an action plan, a specific car reduction target and details of how the travel plan will be monitored and reported on.

A daylight, sunlight and overshadowing assessment is being prepared by a specialist consultant and will be submitted in support of the application. This is a technical document that will analyse the potential impact of the proposed school on the daylight, sunlight and overshadowing on the nearest surrounding properties, including properties on Hawkhurst Street and Edale Road.

A crime impact statement will be submitted in support of the planning application. This document will demonstrate how the development will achieve an appropriate standard of security, and will take into account crime data and statistics in the locality of the site.

The Environment Agency flood map confirms that the proposed site for the new school is located in Flood Zone 1, which indicates that the site sits within a ‘Very Low’ area of flood risk for the following:

  • Flood risk from rivers or the sea
  • Flood risk from surface water
  • Flood risk from reservoirs

Nevertheless, as the site is over 1ha in size, the application will be supported by a flood risk assessment and drainage strategy.

Feedback

This pre-application consultation has concluded.

Thank you to all members of the public who provided feedback during the pre-application consultation stage. If you would like to contact the project team you can do so by telephone, email, or in filling out the contact form below.

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