Plans to spend £11.4million to build a new primary school in Waterlooville set to be given approval

It comes after Hampshire County Council’s regulatory committee gave planning permission for the school despite members’ concerns over installing a gas boiler included in the design proposal.The school will be the second to be built to serve the Newlands area of the town, also locally known as Berewood, where 2,550 new homes, mixed-use space, and amenity space is being created. The first was Berewood Primary School in the north of the site which opened in September 2014 and a second was needed on the southern side - a condition of the outline planning permission for the development approved by Winchester City Council and Havant Borough Council in 2012.

However the plans for the second school have not been plain sailing and in October 2023 the council’s regulatory committee gave the school planning permission despite members’ concerns about installing gas boilers. The report indicates that Gas Boilers with Nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions of less than 24 mg/kWh will be installed at the school. Councillor Rod Cooper said: “We as a county shouldn’t be putting gas boilers and should be doing our best to reduce carbon emissions. For me, this gas boiler proposal is inefficient. It is incomprehensible.” For its part, council officers made it clear that gas boilers were the only alternative for the school since the budget to pay for the school through the developer’s contributions was “limited”.

Now, the county council has taken a step forward and recommended to approve the expenditure of £ 11,400,000 on the construction of the school, which could be ready to open in September 2025. The primary school will cater for 315 children, with eight Special Educational Needs resource provisions.

The University of Chichester Academy Trust will run the school and be responsible for managing, repairing, maintaining, and insuring the completed school building and site. The school will have eleven classes, three group rooms, a specialist practical classroom, 1 to 1 facilities, a break-out space, a kitchen and accessible toilets and a hygiene room.

A total of two powered two-wheelers, and thirty-one car parking spaces will be required, of which two of these parking spaces will be accessible bays. Morgan Sindall Construction has been appointed as the main contractor for the project through the Southern Construction Framework. If approval gets south next week (March 26), construction is anticipated to start on site during Summer 2024 and be finished in Summer 2025.