Image Source: Bridgend County Borough Council
Oggy Bloggy Ogwr doesn’t receive any subsidy and isn’t funded by the BBC. If you like what I’m doing here and think this work is important in keeping locals informed of what’s happening in Bridgend, consider a donation. One-off or monthly; as little or as much as you want. Click the links below, or full details are available here.
Subject to Cabinet approval, Bridgend Council will launch a public consultation on supplementary planning guidance relating to education (pdf).
Under previous Local Development Plans, some primary schools provided as part of new housing developments – and the secondary schools in their catchment area – ended up being over-subscribed. Examples include the new Coety Primary at Parc Derwen (set to be expanded in the next few years) and Maes-yr-Haul Primary at Broadlands.
The draft guidance proposes:
- Developers will need to make a financial contribution towards education facilities for any development of 5 or more homes or 15 or more apartments (1-bed flats, bedsits, HMOs and sheltered housing aren’t counted as part of this).
- That around 1 primary school pupil is “generated” for roughly every 3 houses or 10 apartments. For secondary schools, it works out to 1 pupil for every 5 houses and 17 apartments.
- Developers would be expected to contribute just over £25,000 for every primary or nursery school place generated by a new development, and £36,300 for a secondary school or post-16/sixth form place.
- There are higher contributions for Additional Learning Needs (up to £109,000 per pupil). This is calculated as 1.5% of the expected pupil numbers generated by a development.
- Developers will be required to build a new primary or secondary school within a new development if the development is expected to generate enough pupils to justify one (usually 200-300 for a primary school). If one can’t be built within the development, a developer will be expected to fund an equivalent elsewhere (such as an extension to an existing school).
- Developers will be expected to provide “safe routes to school” that meet set criteria. This includes suitable street lighting and safe crossing points.
An example is given of a development of 500 houses, which would generate (using the council’s calculations) around 165 primary-aged pupils (2 of whom have Additional Learning needs) in an area with no surplus primary school capacity. This would work out at a developer contribution of £4.23 million.
