The government will have to agree to the extension of a school in Preston before it can go ahead.
Plans to double the number of pupils at Cottam Primary School – from 210 to 420 children – have been in the pipeline since they were drawn up by Lancashire County Council education bosses more than two years ago.
The phased rise – generated by admitting 60 pupils to reception each year, rather than the previous 30 – is already under way, utilising space in the current building.
Read more: Back to the drawing board after Whittingham Hospital school plans scorched by councillors
The authority’s development control committee has now granted planning permission for the new facilities that will be required at the Haydocks Lane site in order to accommodate the full increase in numbers.
However, government ministers will have the final say on the proposal after the grassroots sports promotional body, Sport England, objected to the fact that part of an existing playing pitch at the school will be built upon for the project.
The plan is to create a new single-storey block – featuring four classrooms and a studio area – on a section of the current car park.
An additional car park will be built to replace the spaces lost – ultimately boosting the overall number of bays available by 17, to a total of 43.
A new multi-use games area (MUGA) will also be developed on a small section of grass playing field – prompting the objection from Sport England.
Deputy committee chair Tom Lord said the new all-weather facility “seems to be providing an awful lot of alternative benefit for…a community that requires a school”.
However, Jonathan Haine, the county council’s principal planning officer, said that the sports organisation was chiefly concerned with the provision of grass surfaces – meaning the MUGA was not regarded as a suitable substitute.
As a result of Sports England’s opposition, the matter will now have to be decided by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Mr. Haine added: “Whilst there would be a small loss of grass playing field, it is considered that this…is outweighed by the need for the school places, to which great weight should be attached.”
The committee agreed by a majority of 10 votes to one to approve the extension subject to the agreement of the government.
If the work goes ahead, it will include the creation of a new pedestrian and vehicular access point, while the existing 20 mph zone, double yellow lines and verge-protecting bollards on Haydocks Lane will be extended to the south of the school towards Cottam Way.
A report by planning officers, presented to the committee, noted that no estimation had been made by education chiefs of how many additional car trips would be generated by the expansion.
However, it added that the school was located within an area served by good cycle path and footway links – which would encourage “non-motorised” travel to and from class – along with bus stops near the school gates.
Making the numbers add up
Under Lancashire County Council’s school place delivery programme, an extra 595 pupil places have been – or are in the process of being – created in Preston over the 2023-2025 period.
That tally includes the Cottam Primary expansion as well as increases in student numbers agreed for Lea Community Primary School and Broughton-In-Amounderness Church of England Primary School.
However, pressure created by what the authority describes as a “sustained” birth rate and ongoing housebuilding means there is still a shortfall of 66 places in the Preston North school planning area, which is currently being met by surplus capacity that exists in Preston West and Preston East.
However, an entirely new school is ultimately required to bridge the gap. That 420-pupil facility – on the former site of Whittingham Hospital – is awaiting planning permission after development control committee members paused their decision on the proposal amid road safety concerns about parking arrangements for parents and coaches at the site, on Henry Littler Way.
The aim is for the school to open in September 2027, with temporary facilities for 60 reception pupils being installed 12 months earlier, for the duration of the 2026/27 academic year.
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