New Taunton primary school won't open until 2024

The Orchard Grove development is currently being built on the western edge of Taunton, and will eventually deliver 2,000 new homes.

As part of the new development, Somerset County Council has set aside land for a new primary school, which is expected to be constructed by September 2023.

But the school’s first pupils will have to be ferried to and from Wellington by bus for their lessons after it emerged the spine road linking the school to the neighbouring homes wouldn’t be finished until the following spring.

The plans for the new Orchard Grove Primary School were discussed in detail when the council’s regulation committee met in Taunton on Thursday afternoon (December 1).

The £7.3m school will be located next to Comeytrowe Road at the north-eastern edge of the development site, with the only access point being the new spine road being delivered by Taylor Wimpey and the Vistry Group.

The school, which will become part of the Castle Partnership Trust, will initially have space for 420 pupils (plus 58 nursery places), but can be further extended as needed to provide space for a further 210 children.

There will be three sports pitches and a range of play equipment installed at the back of the school, with 33 car parking spaces at the front, including four accessible spaces and a number of electric vehicle charging points.

Prospective head teacher Richard Healey said: “There is great enthusiasm for this school to become part of our thriving trust. There is a real drive around our ‘cradle to career’ model.

“Orchard Grove will provide a strong start to its children and their families once it opens. We will champion our most disadvantaged families and our special educational needs families as well.”

The trust currently comprises four schools – The Castle School secondary school in Taunton and three Wellington primary schools: Court Fields Primary School, Wellesley Park Primary School, and the recently-completed Isambard Kingdom Brunel Primary School.

Jon Fellingham, the council’s service manager for highways development management, confirmed to the committee that the first intake of pupils would be taught at a “host site” in Wellington if the spine road wasn’t finished at the same time as the new school.

He said: “If the school site is not ready or the spine road is not constructed in time, this host site will be used with buses being used to transport pupils from Orchard Grove to and from the site.

“Once the spine road is completed, there will be a pedestrian and cycle link directly to the school.”

The council separately confirmed that it still intended for the new school to be built by September 2023, while the spine road will “likely be in place by the spring of 2024”.

Councillor Dawn Johnson – whose Comeytrowe and Trull division includes the site – shared these concerns, calling on the council to incorporate more green space into the designs.

She said: “I wish this to be an aspirational build – something that we as a council can be really proud about and set a precedent.

“Let’s have more trees on the development. We know how important forest schools are to primary school children’s mental health – why is this not part of our build?

“We have a spine road abutting the school. Visit any primary school in this area and the congestion at pick-up and drop-off time is dangerous – let’s try and address that. It’s not always attainable for all children to get to school by walking and cycling.

“The school build is sited on the wettest part of this development – it is prone to flooding.

“There is no solution to the drainage of the playing fields – they’re not covered by the attenuation pond, which has already suffered a breach which discoloured the Galmington Stream. Let’s do better.”

Councillor Habib Farbahi – who represents the same division – said the school needed to be future-proofed to account for rising numbers of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) following the coronavirus pandemic.

He said: “The effects of the pandemic and related lockdowns have served to exacerbate this issue. Let us future-proof the facility now.

“If we are asking mainstream schools to provide SEND, we must give them the facilities which allow them to do that.”

Carolyn Warburton, who lives in the neighbouring village of Trull, criticised the design of the new school, which will be built to passivhaus standards to reduce energy usage.

She said: “What is on offer here is meagre, nothing to raise the expectations of the local children – more of a child-storage shed.”

A number of councillors shared these concerns, with Councillor Michael Dunk stating the school would “look like a very large warehouse” and Councillor Simon Coles calling for changes to be made on the approach to the site.

He said: “I have to say I think this design is very bland, and the passivhaus design makes it look like a box. There are ways to get around that which are relatively cheap.

“If we put a strong avenue of trees moving down to a canopied entrance, you would have a sense of arrival – of people thinking: ‘Wow, we’re going into an amazing building’.”

Despite these concerns, the committee voted to approve the school proposals by a margin of eight votes to one.

A decision on detailed plans for the next phase of homes within the Orchard Grove development, comprising 70 homes, will be taken by Somerset West and Taunton Council’s planning committee in Taunton on December 8.