Plans for a new multi-million pound special educational needs school have been given the green light.

Tameside’s planning committee has voted in favour of proposals to expand and relocate a Tameside special school.

The £13m plans by the local authority will see Hawthorns School move to the Longdendale Playing Field site, in Mottram in Longdendale.

Hawthorns School is a primary age special school currently located on Lumb Lane in Audenshaw, which caters for pupils with a range of ‘complex’ special educational needs, including autism.

Bosses want to open the new building, which will accommodate 220 places, by September 2023. The former ‘dated’ school building would close when the new building opens.

The Longdendale school would have capacity for up to 220 pupils, an increase on the previous number of 75 – which it is already far exceeding, with 133 pupils currently attending.

A planning document submitted with the application states that the Audenshaw site ‘does not have the capacity to meet current or future needs’.

There had been mixed reaction to the plans, with five supporting comments lodged and five objections.

The site is protected green space, although it has not been used for as a playing field for five years, and Sport England had raised no objection to the plan.

Under the proposals it will house a single storey building, a grass playing pitch and a 3G artificial playing pitch with lighting, along with car parking, access and infrastructure.

Outside of schools hours it is proposed that both playing pitches would be made available for community use, and changing rooms at the neighbouring leisure centre used for this purpose.

The school would be positioned in a U-shape, with road access taken off Manley Grove.

In their report, planning officers stated: “There is an identified need within the borough, and this development would allow more pupils to be provided with a place, and some pupils to go to school closer to where they live.”

They add the single storey building would not be ‘unduly imposing’.

The proposal to move and expand the school was approved by the executive cabinet in June earlier this year.

The cost to the council of expanding and relocating the school is budgeted at £13m which will come from basic needs funding.

A report to cabinet stated that there has been a ‘significant increase’ in children requiring specialist provision over recent years.

The number of children with an education, health and care plan has risen from 519 in 2014/15 to 1,738 in January 2022.

“There is an urgent need for additional accommodation at Hawthorns Primary School to provide for current and future children,” the cabinet report states.

A cheaper option to split the school across two sites had been considered as an alternative, but would mean a distance of eight miles driving distance between the facilities and additional running costs.

Images of the new Hawthorns School designs credit to jmarchitects

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