Education Impact Assessment Wynsome Street, Southwick
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Education Impact Assessment Wynsome Street, Southwick Final September 2017 Contents 1. Introduction 3 2. Primary Education 7 3. Secondary education 17 4. Developer Contributions Requested 28 5. Establishing Appropriate Contributions 32 Appendix 1: Correspondence with Wiltshire Council 34 Amy Gilham Director, Economics Turley September 2017 1. Introduction Purpose of the Report 1.1 This Education Assessment has been prepared on behalf of Gladman Developments (the ‘applicant’) by the Economics team at Turley, one of the UK’s largest independent planning consultancies. The assessment relates to the planning application for a residential development (the ‘proposed development’) at land off Wynsome Street, Southwick, Trowbridge. 1.2 Wiltshire Council has been identified as the Local Education Authority (LEA) relevant for the proposed development. In the Planning Consultation Response regarding the proposed development, Wiltshire Council has requested developer contributions for education as follows: Table 1.1: Request for Developer Contributions, primary and secondary provision Level of education Cost per pupil No. pupils generated by Total proposed development Primary education £17,545 38 £666,710 provision Secondary £23,3161 272 £629,532 education provision Total £1,296,242 Source: Planning consultation response, Wynsome Street, Southwick, 11th August 2017 1.3 The Council has indicated that a new primary school is needed in the area though has not requested contributions for a specific primary school. It has indicated that the proposed development is likely to be refused planning permission unless a site for a new primary school comes forward. For secondary provision, the Council has stated that contributions will be used towards the extension of John of Gaunt secondary school or be pooled towards the provision of an additional secondary school, depending on the timing of the development3. 1 Correspondence with Wiltshire Council on 11th August 2017 provided an updated cost per pupil for the secondary level. Earlier correspondence in May 2017 stated that the secondary cost per pupil was £21,747, however this was produced using 2016 costings, which is now out of date and is superseded by the £23,316 figure. 2 The original pre-application response provided by Wiltshire Council on 2nd May 2017 incorrectly calculated the request for secondary level contributions for 20 pupils. This has been amended to 27 and the request for contributions has been changed accordingly. 3 Wiltshire Council, Planning Consultation Response for Wynsome Street, Southwick, 2nd May 2017 3 1.4 This report sets out to further understand the evidence and request for contributions sent by Wiltshire Council to Gladman Developments. The following documents have been considered: Planning consultation response, Wynsome Street, Southwick, sent from Wiltshire Council to Gladman on 2nd May; Data and information provided by Wiltshire Council, sent to Turley on 11th and 17th August 2017 detailed in the Appendix; Wiltshire Council, School Places Strategy, 2015 – 2020; Wiltshire Council, Core Strategy, adopted in 2015. 1.5 The supply and demand for primary and secondary education has been reviewed in schools relevant to the location of the proposed development4 to inform the level of developer contributions that we consider proportionate and reasonable in light of the impact of the proposed development in accordance with CIL Regulation 122. 1.6 Our analysis identifies that it is reasonable to request £263,175, equivalent to 15 primary places. We find the request for contributions for secondary provision to be unjustified. Therefore, of the £1,296,242, we find that only £263,175 is reasonable, equivalent to 20.3% of the total request for contributions. 1.7 We identify a number of points of challenge with regards to Wiltshire Council’s approach to establishing developer contributions for education. A key point for challenge, at the primary level, is that Wiltshire Council requests education contributions based on the two closest schools while it considers the wider Trowbridge Town area as relevant to pupil demand from the proposed development. We therefore present our assessment of primary based on a wider geography, which includes the 2 schools used as the basis for developer contributions as well as the Trowbridge Town area. Importantly, we consider that the Council’s approach is inconsistent and is inappropriately applied in the request for contributions. 1.8 This assessment challenges Wiltshire Council’s approach in the following ways: • Point of Challenge 1: Inconsistent geographies of analysis are used by Wiltshire Council • Point of Challenge 2: Additional primary provision will form part of wider developments and is not taken into account by Wiltshire Council • Point of Challenge 3: At the primary level, the inclusion of non-approved schemes is hypothetical and leads to an overestimation of future demand • Point of Challenge 4: Cross catchment pupil movements are not taken into account in assessing demand • Point of Challenge 5: Wiltshire Council’s supply-demand position is challengeable 4 Early years provision is not considered in this assessment as Wiltshire Council have advised that existing provision will be able to support the demand brought about by the proposed development. 4 • Point of Challenge 6: At the secondary level, the inclusion of non-approved schemes is hypothetical and leads to an overestimation of future demand • Point of Challenge 7: Not all pupils from the proposed development will attend secondary schools within Trowbridge • Point of Challenge 8: Wiltshire Council consider that there will be no surplus capacity at secondary level but the data indicates surplus to accommodate demand • Point of Challenge 9: The School Places Strategy acknowledges that additional provision is required but does not indicate this should be a reason to not meet housing need • Point of Challenge 10: The deficit in demand is not sufficient in scale to warrant provision of a new school in the Southwick area and therefore finding a site for a new school should not be used as a reason for refusal • Point of Challenge 11: Limited options for expansion are considered by the Council • Point of Challenge 12: At the secondary level, there is sufficient capacity within the area to accommodate additional pupil growth 1.9 The above points of challenge are detailed throughout the assessment. Proposed Development 1.10 The proposed development is for 140 residential dwellings at land off Wynsome Street, Southwick, which is within the Wiltshire Council administrative area. A location plan is shown below. Figure 1.1: Location map of the proposed development Source: Gladman Developments, 2017 5 1.11 Since the application is at outline stage, the accommodation schedule is currently reserved. However, an indicative mix has been provided by the applicant, as shown below. Table 1.2: Indicative Accommodation Mix No. Beds Affordable Market Number of Units % of units 1 bed 0 0 0 0 2 bed 33 9 42 30.0 3 bed 13 34 47 33.6 4 bed 11 34 45 32.1 5 bed 0 6 6 4.3 Total 57 83 140 100.0% Source: Gladman Developments, 2017 Structure of Report 1.12 The remainder of the report is structured as follows: • Chapter 2: Primary Education - This section reviews existing and future capacity of relevant primary schools within the area, considers the impact of cross catchment movement, expansion plans and primary school demand arising from wider development and the proposed development; • Chapter 3: Secondary Education - This section reviews existing and future capacity of the 3 secondary schools within the area, considers the impact of cross catchment movement, expansion plans and secondary school demand arising from wider development and the proposed development; • Chapter 4: Developer Contributions - This section reviews Wiltshire Council’s request for developer contributions with regards to the evidence presented in Chapters 2 and 3 and; • Chapter 5: Establishing Appropriate Contributions - Draws on the evidence collected to establish an approach to calculating reasonable education contributions. 6 2. Primary Education Context 2.1 Southwick CoE Primary School has been identified as the nominal catchment school by Wiltshire Council5. A further local school is referenced with regards to capacity and the need for contributions. The Planning Consultation Response, provided by Wiltshire Council indicates that there are four primary schools relevant to the proposed development. However, in this document and additional correspondence, the Council also references the wider geography of Trowbridge Town6. Point of Challenge 1: Inconsistent geographies of analysis are used by Wiltshire Council 2.2 Wiltshire Council applies inconsistent approaches to considering developer contributions and wider school place planning. The geography used to establish developer contributions is based on the two closest schools (Southwick CoE Primary School and North Bradley CoE Primary School). However, in its Planning Consultation Response Wiltshire Council recognises that these are not the only schools of relevance to the proposed development. It identifies that a wider number of schools are within a safe walking distance of the development7: “Some Trowbridge town primaries are also within 2 miles safe walking distance of the proposed development site e.g. Studley Green and Grove.” 2.3 In addition we identify Holbrook Primary School as a fifth school which is within a 2 mile walking distance of the proposed development. It is not