A new 1,100-place secondary school for Spalding and new primary schools both for the town and Holbeach are on the cards.
Other primary schools in South Holland will be expanded to increase the provision for an expanding population.
The proposals are revealed in the latest stages of the South East Lincolnshire Local Plan which have just gone out for public consultation.
The new secondary school in Spalding will be built on a 21-acre (8.5hectare) site, currently farmland, close to Monks
House Lane and Bourne Road. It will also include provision for 225 sixth-form places.
It is aimed to have it in place from 2021 to 2026 and, according to the plan, “design work will need to commence soon,” as it is estimated to be at least a two-year construction project.
Access will be created from Monks House Lane or Bourne Road and the site “is centrally located and readily accessible when considering all the new development proposed around Spalding.”
A new primary school will also be needed to cater for additional homes in the Vernatts Drain area (Sustainable
Urban Extension), which will be accessed from the planned South West Relief Road. Holbeach is also likely to have a new primary school linked with future development.
Secondary schools in Long Sutton and Holbeach will also need greater provision for rising numbers. Primary facilties will also have to be extended in Crowland, Donington, Long Sutton, Pinchbeck, Swineshead, Quadring, Surfleet and Weston.
The need to invest millions of pounds in the area’s education comes as the latest stage in the plan’s progress sees a five per cent increase in housing for the district.
The amended plan, which includes Boston, sees the housing allocation for Spalding rise from 5,255 to 5,510 between 2011 and 2036.
So far it has taken seven years of work to get the Local Plan to this stage and it is hoped that it will finally be in force by Christmas.
The draft plan had been submitted to the Planning Inspector in June, but more than 1,000 questions came back to strategic planners for South East Lincolnshire.
All of the policies, except four, were amended. One was removed completely and six new policies were added.
Amendments have now been made and policies added and now it is out for consultation until August 28.
The new Spalding secondary school will be on an area of land also allocated for 400 new houses across the site.
The Vernatts Drain development of 4,000 homes, including the relief road, is likely to be subject of a separate masterplan for the individual phases needed to deliver the project.
Phase One is likely to see the creation of a five-spur roundabout at the junction of Spalding Road with Enterprise Way.
The new policy introduced during the amendment stage sees the creation of Prestige Employment Sites.
Holbeach Food Enterprise Zone has been identified as one of the new sites.
Bridge Road, Long Sutton, Spalding’s Lincs Gateway, and Clay Lake are also within the new policy.
All three sites require further internal road infrastructure and will have mixed uses.
In the first six years of the local plan, from 2011 to 2017, some 2,802 new homes should have been built in South Holland. In reality 1,498 have been completed, leaving a shortfall and it will be made up over the remaining years of the plan.
The increase in housing allocation across the district sees an extra 25 or less apart from Holbeach which is up by 102, Spalding 255, Moulton 100 and 28 in Long Sutton. The numbers include permissions and dwellings built since 2011.
A number of ‘reserve’ sites have also been added to the plan with 135 possible on land to the north of Town Dam Lane in Donington, 141 south of High Road, Weston, 101 in Surfleet and 99 in Gosberton.
The decision to release sites will be made by the district council if it is determined to be necessary.
Take part in the current consultation process online see www.southeastlincsonline.org
