Exclusive by Alan Quick

PUPILS at a Mid Devon Primary School are campaigning for their proposed new school to be given the go-ahead by planners next week.

Children at Newton St Cyres school have been waiting for five years for their new school and thought that the work would be able to begin this autumn to build a brand new 120-place school on a greenfield site on Station Road in their village.

The land has already been given by a local landowner, John Quicke, to Devon County Council and outline planning permission has been granted so everyone was hoping that the contractor would be able to start work very soon.

However, a hitch in the final planning approval has meant that the school plan has been put on hold until everyone can agree how to make the junction between Station Road and the busy A377 road from Crediton to Exeter safe for cars.

John Jolliffe, the Executive Head of the Exe Valley Federation, which includes Newton St Cyres, told the “Courier”: “The work to the road junction is being carried out by Kingswood Homes, who agreed to this as part of their development of 25 new homes next to the school site.

"The Highways and Planning officers were happy with the proposal but when it went to the planning committee last week it was turned down.

"We are really worried that this delay will mean that the children at the school don’t get the new school they really need and so we are campaigning to get this decision changed as soon as we can.”

NO LONGER FIT FOR PURPOSE

The current school was built in 1876 and most children are taught in temporary buildings that are no longer fit for purpose.

The design of the school means that there is no disabled access to the upstairs classroom and it is cramped and badly laid out for the needs of 21st century teaching and learning.

The children love their school but one Reception child said: “our hall is too small for our PE lessons.”

Beth Tilley, in Year 5, said that “it’s not safe. There’s lots of fast moving traffic and very large lorries.” One young child commented that “The cars are very noisy” and that “Our school is on a very busy road.”.

The school’s location on the A377 means that parents and children have to run the gauntlet of traffic travelling through the village and have to walk up a steep hill alongside the main road.

NEAR MISS

Jackie Enright, the Chair of Governors and a grandparent of two children at the school said that she has had a near-miss whilst walking her grandson to school: “We were trying to cross the main road and most of the traffic had stopped when a motorbike came speeding up the hill.

"I had to pull my grandson back from the path of the motorcyclist. We were very shaken afterwards.”

Other parents have also experienced near-misses as they take their children to school and are therefore very keen to see the school moved away from the dangers of the main road to a quieter site on Station Road.

Parents and children have been asked to say how they would travel to the new school if it was built.

FOOT, CYCLE OR SCOOTER

James Akhurst, Head of School at Newton, has found that currently 33 per cent of children come to school by foot, cycle or scooter because the main road is so dangerous but this would rise to 75 per cent if the school moved.

He has put together a plan for a walking bus to run from the Parish Hall car park and the Crown and Sceptre pub’s car park to encourage families to walk.

He said: “The new school will be much more accessible on foot and we are delighted that so many children and parents are willing to walk to the new site.

"The school’s new Travel Plan reflects this commitment to reducing traffic congestion and we are confident that there will be far fewer cars turning into Station Road than there are dropping children off at the moment on the main road.”

Twelve families who live in Sweetham and beyond and need to come by car would not need to turn onto the A377 if the school was re-located to Station Road.

STAGGERED

Alongside this, the school has analysed the times that staff and children come to school and leave at the end of the day and found that far from everyone arriving between 8.30am and 8.45am and leaving between 3.30pm and 3.45pm, the start and end of the day are much more staggered.

Staff arrive between 7.30am and 8.30am and a new breakfast club will mean that children can arrive earlier in the morning as well.

At the end of the day lots of children stay for clubs or after school care and these finish at various times from 4pm to 5.30pm.

Mr Akhurst explained: “The staggered start and end to the day will mean that the increase in traffic at the junction is very small and well spread out over the day, not all at once as some people might imagine.”

The proposal for the controversial road junction would reduce the narrow section of road from 28 metres to just eight metres and give priority to traffic turning off the A377 into Station Road so that a queue would not form on the main road.

SAFER JUNCTION

By improving visibility from both directions, the junction would be safer for everyone using it at all times of day, not just for parents dropping children off at school.

Rachel Marsh, a parent of a child currently at the school said that “on some evenings the clubs at the recreation ground create as much traffic as the school but everyone manages the junction safely then and the drop off and pick up times are much tighter than the school day.”

The Parish Council and other local councillors are in favour of the proposed traffic management scheme and it already has the approval of Devon Highways and the planning officer.

All the children at the school have written letters to the planning officer explaining why they need a new school and an online petition in support of the move has reached more than 300 signatures since Friday.

Mr Jolliffe, parents and children will all be attending the next meeting of the MDDC planning committee on Monday, September 26 and hope to explain to the members just why the new school is so important for the community and why the new site and the plans for the road junction are going to be so much safer.

Danny Carroll in Year 6, who is part of the School Council and is busy campaigning for support for the new school said: “Moving the school site will make our school lives much safer.

"The amount of traffic will be less and we can feel happy and safe in a brand new school building.”

The whole school community at Newton St Cyres is waiting with bated breath to see if the planning committee will agree to the changes to the road so that their much needed new school building can go ahead as planned.

Petitions have been started and letters of support are requested by campaigners.