Sale paves way for schools revamp

Asda has purchased land in between Chaucer Road and Wordsworth Avenue from Sheffield Council in order to build its new store next to Chaucer Business and Enterprise College, which is set to open late next year.

A total of 4.96m from the sale is now set to be spent on improving sports facilities for community use at Chaucer Business and Enterprise College and nine other secondary schools by 2012.

So-called "active playgrounds" are also to be created at 25 primary schools in the north of Sheffield by July next year.

As well as the cash generated from selling the land to Asda, a further 775,000 for the scheme has also been gained in Government funding.

Of the total 5.7m earmarked for the redevelopments, 3.1m is set to be spent on Chaucer Business and Enterprise College, 2.3m will go towards sport and community facilities at secondary schools, and the remainder of the cash will be spent on the new primary school playgrounds.

The Cabinet member for children and young people's services at Sheffield Council, Colin Ross, said: "We have a fantastic opportunity to provide better facilities for thousands of children in Sheffield.

"At the same time, we want to get the very best value out of the investment for the local community, by ensuring the facilities offer high quality activities for as many people as possible to enjoy.

"Having fun and leading a healthy lifestyle go hand in hand, and the potential to draw down national sports funding cannot be overlooked."

Part of the condition of the sale of the playing fields was that the sports facilities and green space would need to be replaced elsewhere in the city.

Developments at Chaucer Business and Enterprise College will include creating new grass pitches, a floodlit all-weather pitch and a synthetic running track, as well as improvements to the school frontage.

Four of the secondary schools earmarked for improvements are within a two-mile radius of the new Asda supermarket -– Chaucer, Parkwood, Firth Park and Yewlands.

Other work will take place at the Wisewood and Myers Grove sites – which will be replaced by the new Forge Valley School in September next year – at Stocksbridge and City schools, at the Abbeydale Grange site and at King Edward's Upper School.

The new Forge Valley School will have a community bike club run by the British Cycling Federation, while a "cycle speedway" will be built at the City School.

New sports facilities are earmarked for the site of Abbeydale Grange school, which is set to close in July 2011, while the swimming pool at King Edward School is to be overhauled.

All redevelopments will be carried out in conjunction with the Building Schools for the Future scheme to save money, as contractors,will already be on site.

At the 25 primary schools, meanwhile, so-called "active playgrounds" will be installed for use by pupils.

One such facility has already been built at Holt House Infant School in Carterknowle.

The deputy headteacher at Holt House Junior School, Roberta Reilly, said: "The new equipment takes on all sorts of different roles in the children's imaginations.

"We quickly saw that it had a lot more potential than at first we realised. We've used it as an obstacle course on sports day, and also to recreate events from history."

The plans are set to be discussed by Sheffield Council's Cabinet committee at a meeting today.