Plans for new teaching block at Myton School in Warwick due to be heard tonight after postponed meeting

The school in Myton Road has submitted plans to demolish two outbuildings – one being a bike store and the other being a derelict caretakers bungalow – to then build on the current turning circle on the school site.

The plans were due to go before Warwick District Council’s planning committee on Tuesday (July 19).

But when councillors gathered, Cllr Alan Boad proposed, because of the temperatures, to postpone the meeting until Wednesday when it will be cooler. Councillors unanimously backed the proposal.

The new building, is also due to double up as temporary accommodation for Oakley Grove School pupils until their own classrooms are built.

In the plans it says the new structure would either ‘provide a new sixth-form building to accommodate the existing 387 students, which is anticipated to increase to 550 over the coming academic years or, to provide additional

teaching space to enable the school to accommodate approximately 180 additional students from September 2023’.

However, in the agenda documents for the planning committee, it says: “The applicant advises that the proposed building is designed for 550 pupils plus staff, however this does not reflect the total increase in school occupancy.

"The proposed development would increase the capacity of the sixth form by 162 pupils to accommodate the predicted demand over five years.

"The whole capacity of the school (including sixth form) would increase from 1,760 (current student population which is already 60 students over the school’s current capacity) up to 1,950 over five years, resulting in a total increase in student capacity of 190 pupils.”

The new building would include 12 classrooms, offices, study areas, an IT room and a cafe with outdoor seating.

There are more than 30 objections to the plans – including one from Warwick Town council. There is one comment in support of the plans.

Reasons for objection include; concerns about congestion and air pollution, that the development does not make the area better for people around the school, a lack of provision for cycling and that there is a different area at the back of the school to build on.