Plans for Seaton Valley's new £40m school approved

Members of Northumberland County Council’s strategic planning committee gave the green light for plans to construct a new school on land east of the former Whytrig Midddle School on the Avenue in Seaton Delaval.

The £40m project from Northumberland County Council will see Astley Community High School and Whytrig Middle School rebuilt on a new shared campus to create a state-of-the-art learning environment for over 1,000 students.

The proposals also include plans to build a sports centre, a swimming pool, external sports pitches and a car park to serve the site.

Speaking at the meeting, the executive headteacher of the Seaton Valley Federation John Barnes said: “My children deserve better and the cost to repair the existing buildings is too great. Other areas have got the chance before us, which I don’t like.

“My staff deserve the opportunity to teach in the best possible environment, and not just teach but inspire.

“For far too long we’ve not had the community facilities we deserve. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, not just for the children and staff but for those children who have not been born, or not even been thought of yet.”

However, there were some concerns raised about highways safety around the site.

Coun Eve Chicken, who represents the Seghill with Seaton Delaval ward, said: “I support the building of a new school – it’s an absolute must to the children of Seaton Valley – but I have some reservations about the access to the school.

“Astley Road is backed up from around 2.30pm and to increase the level of traffic is just going to cause untold amounts of traffic. The entrances are just not suitable for that area.

“The scheme should have allowed for residential parking – while there’s no legal right to park your car outside your home, people have to park their cars somewhere, they can’t just park them in mid air.”

Despite this, councillors by 10 votes to one approved the plans.

Coun Georgina Hill said: “For me this one, I think is brilliant. We sit here and approve applications without public benefit, but this is a brilliant application, a brilliant development for Northumberland County Council.

“There are car parking issues outside every school in the country. It needs to be closely monitored, but I fully support this application.”

Coun Jeff Reid warned there would be complaints about the parking issue, and said parents would not use the car park on Western Avenue due to the added time to their journey.

He said: “This was the opportunity to build something that didn’t have any problems, but you’re throwing that away by making it far more complicated than it needs to be. We haven’t taken the opportunity to be as brave as we should have been.

“I’m really pleased, I’m going to vote for it, but for once in our lives we could have made everybody happy. If we think parents are going to go into that car park we’re living on another planet.”

Designed by Ryder Architecture, the project will create the first carbon neutral school in Northumberland, supporting the council’s ambition to become carbon neutral by 2030.