Seashell Trust, 160 Stanley Road, Heald Green, Stockport, SK8 6RF

ITEM Application DC/060928 Reference Location: Seashell Trust, 160 Stanley Road, Heald Green, Stockport, SK8 6RF PROPOSAL: Hybrid application proposing the following: Detailed Application for the erection of a new school (Use Class D1) with associated kitchen and dining facilities, swimming and hydrotherapy facilities (Use Class D2), infrastructure, drop-off parking, access, landscaping and ancillary works. Outline Application (all matters reserved except access) for the demolition of the Chadderton building, Orchard / Wainwright / Hydrotherapy / Care block, Dockray building, part of existing college, 1 Scout Hut and 1 garage block, and erection of new campus facilities (Use Class D1/D2 - Reception, Family Assessment Units, Family Support Services, Administration / Training / Storage Facility, Sports Hall and Pavilion) with associated infrastructure, parking, landscaping and ancillary works. Outline Application (all matters reserved) for the erection of up to 325 dwellings (Use Class C3) in northern fields with associated infrastructure, parking, access, landscaping and ancillary works. Type Of Hybrid Application (i.e. part full, part outline) Application: Registration 18.03.2016 Date: Expiry Date: Extension of time agreed to 09/02/18 if approved – 12/01/18 if not Case Officer: Daniel Hewitt Applicant: Seashell Trust Agent: NJL Consulting DELEGATION / COMMITTEE STATUS Due to the size of the proposed development and the fact that it is Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) development, the application must be determined by the Planning and Highways Regulation Committee. The application was referred to the Cheadle Area Committee on 12 December 2017 and the Bramhall and Cheadle Hulme South Area Committee on 14 December 2017 for comment. A summary of the debate at those committees are provided at the end of this report. If members are minded to grant planning permission the application must first be referred to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to give him the opportunity to determine the application himself should he wish to do so (major development in the Green Belt). UPDATE FOLLOWING AREA COMMITTEES A summary of the debates at both area committees are provided at the end of this report. Following a request made by members of the relevant area committees, commercially sensitive financial information that remains confidential has been made available to members of the Planning and Highways Regulation Committee. Further public representations have been received since the report was added to the area committee agendas so the public representations summary below has been updated accordingly. Three new matters have been raised by further objections. A single objection has been received on the grounds that the proposed development would set a precedent for other development in the Green Belt. In response, each planning application is assessed on its own merits and is not bound by previous decisions. Two objections have also been received on the grounds that police resources are inadequate. In response, the police are funded by general taxation including council tax and it would not be reasonable to require new housing developments to make additional contributions to local police services. Finally, a single objection has been received on the grounds that specialist SEND services should not be centralised in one part of the country. In response, it is important to note that a key benefit of the development is the proposed expansion of the Trust’s outreach and capacity building services. Further written expressions of support have also been received raising no new issues. BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE The Seashell Trust (SST) is a registered charity with Royal patronage, educating and providing specialist care for children and young people aged 2-25 with the some of the most complex neuro-disabilities and needs in society. Their cohort include children and young people with a combination of deafness, blindness, autism and attendant profound physical and multiple learning disabilities and/or difficulties. All of the children in SSTs’ care have significant brain damage and have little or no ability to communicate independently. The children and young people attending the school and college have been referred by local authorities who do not have the necessary experience, expertise or specialist facilities to educate and care for them due to the severity and/or complexity of their needs. The Seashell Trust currently have an on-site capacity of 120 students aged between 2-25 years comprising: Royal School Manchester, a non-maintained special school catering for pupils and students 2-19 years (referred to as ‘the school’); and Royal College Manchester, an independent specialist further education college, catering for pupils and students 19-25 years (referred to as ‘the college’). Both the school and college provide both day and residential places. Residential students comprise approximately 50% of the intake and reside in new, purpose built housing on the campus (outside of but adjacent to the application site) following the grant of planning permission in 2012. SST in their submission have confirmed that approximately 12% of students are resident year round, 7% are resident during term time only, 13% are weekly boarders and 18% have other short term breaks at SST. Despite being registered for an intake of 60 students, the number of pupils/students at the school has been capped at 50 by SST due to the limitations of the current accommodation. The proposed new school would enable SST to reinstate their intake to 60 pupils. The applicant has stated that in June 2017 the school had 48 pupils/students on roll (including 6 Stockport residents and 18 from Greater Manchester). The current capacity of the college is 80 students with 60 in college and 20 offsite on internships. The current number of students being educated on site (including day students and residential students) is 60. No material change in student numbers would result from the proposed development. The applicant has stated that in June 2017 of the 80 students at the college, 20 were Stockport residents and 37 were from Greater Manchester. The school was rated by OFSTED as ‘outstanding’ in their last inspection in October 2016. The college now has a ‘good’ rating (previously ‘outstanding’) following a recent inspection in October 2017. In their submission, SST have highlighted research into greater survival rates and the later health status of premature infants that shows that the number of children and young people being born with profound neuro-disabilities nationally is rising significantly leading to a growing demand for SST’s specialist services. SST have confirmed that they currently employ more than 440 members of staff at the site and that 40% of staff live in Stockport and 90% live within a 30 minute drive of the application site. The need for the development is generated by the inadequacy of SST’s current accommodation that is limiting both their intake and the quality of care and education they can provide. These inadequacies are partly due to SST’s history. The Trust’s current site opened in 1956 and operated as a school for deaf children in accommodation built to meet the needs of intellectually able, ambulant and self- supporting children and young people. It was not until 1972 when local authorities began to include deaf children in mainstream schools that a special unit opened on the site to cater for students with more complex needs. In 1979, the school specialised and catered only for those pupils with additional and complex needs. The situation which occurs to present day. Despite many extensions and adaptations having been made and new buildings added to SST’s campus, SST state that the 1950’s buildings on the site are at their “structural and functional limits”, no longer meet SST’s operational needs and do not provide the teaching and learning environments expected for students with such complex and profound disabilities. Fundamentally, the Trust argue that the original often multi-storey, traditional classroom based school buildings are no longer suitable and severely restrict and limit SST’s ability to provide all students with the individually designed curriculums and integration of therapies they require. Despite the recent completion of the new residential buildings on the campus, paid for by a fundraising appeal, SST’s ongoing concerns about the ageing, inadequate and unsuitable nature of remaining accommodation prompted them to develop a Strategic Plan to safeguard and enhance the SST’s ongoing work on the site. The plan’s objectives include: to maintain the schools and college’s ‘outstanding’ OFTSED ratings; to play a central role in capacity building in other organisations, schools, colleges and communities across the country; to extend SST’s reach to more families across the country through external advisory, outreach and training services; to be a centre of excellence in the use of assistive technology and digital technologies to support learning, communication and independence; to be centre of excellence in community engagement, participation and the delivery of inclusive sports and leisure programmes; and to provide high quality, specialist, multi-professional assessment of the needs of young people with neuro-disabilities and early intervention services to families. SST believe that in order to deliver their strategic objectives the following physical interventions are required: the replacement of the existing housing

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