School planincludesanti-floodmeasures

A YORK school to accommodate the merger of two sites is to be rebuilt with an underground chamber to take in floodwater after church bosses ruled out building it outside the flood zone.

The new home for both English Martyrs Primary School and Our Lady’s Primary School, both run by the Diocese of Middlesbrough, will be on the existing Martyrs’ site on Hamilton Drive.

The church’s agent has stated that the existing buildings for each school are not fit for the provision of modern education and their are problems involving asbestos, maintenance, and other issues as well as the carbon footprints of the ageing buildings.

Planning consent to build the new school was originally sought in July but withdrawn to allow more work on flood prevention because the developers say there is nowhere else to build the school.

A number of measures are proposed including building the proposed school on a plinth, just as the existing school is, above an underground chamber to store excess water.

The proposed school would be to the side and east of the present site, which once cleared would become parking spaces and a fenced multi-use games area.

Playing fields will be retained to the rear of the school, and a landscaped area east of the site would boost biodiversity while also providing a space for outside classrooms.

The new layout will include a sensory garden, two entrances, one for the pupils and one for visitors, and more parking including spaces for 90 cycles.

The existing school is a single storey 1960s building with a recent extension, which would be left standing to provide extra teaching space, a pastoral suite and music room. York Councillors will be urged to vote yes to the scheme on Thursday.