Council drops plans for new town primary school

Plans for a new 420-place primary school on the southern edge of Loughborough have been dropped.

Leicestershire County Council had said the school should be built as part of a proposed housing development off Terry Yardley Way, near Woodthorpe.

However, the Reform UK-run authority has now removed the school from its long-term planning after a review concluded pupil numbers in the area would fall over the next 15 years.

The school was expected to have cost about £14m to build, though the authority said it had not yet committed any funding to it.

The council said there were 10 primary schools within two miles (3.2km) of the proposed school and it had been calculated there would be a surplus of 590 places in the area within four years.

Overall, primary pupil numbers across the area were expected to fall from the current number of 2,875 to 2,035 by 2041-42, officials said.

Renata Chantrill, the council's head of strategy and education sufficiency, said: "We regularly review plans for new schools to make sure they reflect the latest pupil forecasts, housing growth and the number of places already available locally.

"The latest evidence shows there is sufficient capacity in existing primary schools around south Loughborough to meet expected demand, including demand from planned housing growth.

"With primary pupil numbers also forecast to fall, building an additional school would create places that aren't currently needed and could put further pressure on existing local schools.

"It is therefore right that we don't commit significant public money to a new school where the evidence no longer demonstrates a need for one."

Beverley Gray, the Labour county councillor for the Loughborough South division, said she was deeply concerned the school would not be built.

In a representation to the council's cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Gray said: "I feel that this recommendation requires further examination prior to a final decision being made as it will have such wide-reaching implications on the community."

Gray said she was concerned that pupils from the new housing development would have to travel further to get to nearby schools, some of which were oversubscribed.

She said some of the routes they would have to use did not have cycle routes, so parents would have to make trips by car, adding to congestion.

The council said a new 420-place school serving the Garendon Park housing development, to the north of the town, was set to open in September 2027.

A 570-place school in the new Broadnook development, north of Birstall, is also set to open in September 2027.

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