Plans for a new school on a Bury industrial estate have been rejected after council planners ruled the site would be unsafe for children.
The proposals would have seen the ground floor of the Remmets House building, in Bury's Lord Street, converted into a Muslim girls high school with space for around 100 pupils. The upper floor of the building is currently home to the Bury Defence Academy.
Highway safety concerns
Bury council's planning team ruled that children would be 'spilling out' of the building 'onto footways which have not been designed for such users' and 'roads and junctions used by HGVs'.
The 'scale and nature' of the highway interventions needed to 'even begin to consider' the plan acceptable would 'have the potential to result in significant adverse effects' on surrounding businesses, they added.
Applicant's proposed measures
Applicant Bury Academy had put forward a number of measures it felt would reduce the impact on surrounding roads. These included staggered pick-up and drop-off times for pupils, a free school run minibus service, and use of the neighbouring Khizra Mosque for parking. Additionally, the developer said Bury Defence Academy would have its hours restricted to non-school hours.
However, officers felt these measures would not necessarily have the desired effect. On the minibus and mosque parking, they said there was no guarantee parents would use them.
Officers' ruling
They further judged staggered start and finish times could actually make problems worse as they would 'extend the duration of activity rather than remove it' and could result in 'prolonged disruption' within the surrounding roads.
The applicant also suggested a majority of pupils would walk to school. Even if this was the case, something officers seemed sceptical about, the 'route available to pupils would pass numerous commercial accesses, service yards and operational business premises, resulting in repeated interaction between vulnerable pedestrians and vehicles engaged in commercial activities', decision-makers judged.
Officers added: “There would be up to 100 children spilling out of a building onto footways which have not been designed for such users and on roads and junctions used by HGV's and large vehicles [...]
“Given the characteristics of the surrounding highway network and the nature of the land uses through which pupils would be required to travel, it is considered the routes to the proposed school from the wider area would not provide a safe and suitable environment for children.”
Impact on businesses
Safety interventions such as new pedestrian crossings, footpath widening, traffic-calming measures and parking restrictions could 'constrain vehicular movements and reduce the efficiency of freight and servicing operations', they continued. These could also 'cause traffic congestion, limit available on-street parking and loading facilities, increase journey times, restrict access for larger vehicles, and result in delays to commercial traffic'.
These impacts would 'adversely affect the day-to-day functioning of businesses that depend upon unrestricted and reliable access to the highway network', the council ruled. The scheme was rejected by officers because of these concerns.
