Henry Mellish set for school extension bid
A £5.3 million building for the Henry Mellish site is planned as an extension of Heathfield Primary and Nursery School, which is a mile away.
Although on a different campus, the proposed new two-storey building would share the name Heathfield, cater for 420 pupils and have a 52-place nursery.
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Hide AdUnlike Henry Mellish, which has now been demolished, there will be no entrance from Highbury Road and access would be via Kemmel Road and Kersall Drive. Two large football pitches on the site would be retained as part of the school play provision.
Heathfield’s head teacher, Gary Fullwood, claimed that the extension was desperately needed because the school was heavily over-subscribed. “There have been 150 applications for 40 available places,” he said.
If the plan goes ahead, there will be a head of school and a teaching deputy on each site, with Mr Fullwood having overall responsibility. He said the extension was ideally located to enable the two campuses to cover the whole of Heathfield’s catchment area.
The city council’s major programmes manager, Rob Caswell, said: “We are working closely with a highways team to address any concerns about traffic and parking.”
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Hide AdComments about the plans at drop-in session were mainly favourable. But two residents of Kersall Drive said they had enjoyed ‘peace and quiet’ since Henry Mellish closed, and this would come to an end if the scheme went ahead.