A “brilliant opportunity” to bring education back to the site of Bath’s Culverhay School has got the green light from councillors.
A new school for children with special educational needs and disabilities and an alternative provision school for vulnerable pupils at risk of permanent exclusion will be built on the site.
Current buildings on the site, including the leisure centre facilities will be demolished, but a new hydrotherapy pool and sports hall for “community use” would form a part of the new buildings.
The Department for Education will fund the two new schools, but Bath & North East Somerset Council has to provide the department with a cleared site for them.
On 6th June, the council’s cabinet voted to approve plans to level the Culverhay site and hand it to the department for the new schools.
The Culverhay site has been mostly empty since Bath Community Academy closed in 2018.
Councillor Paul May (Publow with Whitchurch, Liberal Democrat), the council’s Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, said: “Our view has always been that this site must be used for education.”
He told the council cabinet meeting: “This is a brilliant opportunity to make sure our children and young people get the best education and start in life they can.”
He said: “We are fortunate that we already have three excellent special schools in our area. However, we still need this extra capacity.
“Because demand has increased substantially in recent years, some local children have had to be placed at expensive specialist schools outside of our immediate area.”
There will be 120 school places at the special school. The alternative provision school — to be called Sulis Academy and be a part of the Midsomer Norton Schools Partnership multi-academy trust — will have 55 school places.
It will aim to support children and young people to rejoin mainstream schooling or towards employment.
The site has been held for educational uses since the school closed, which Paul Roper (Kingsmead, Liberal Democrat), the council’s Cabinet Member for Economic and Cultural Sustainable Development, said had been a “significant drain” on the council’s finances, costing it over half a million pounds over the last three years.
If the two schools do not need to take up all the site, part of the land could be released from this restriction in order to fund the work of clearing the site.
A council report had said this would be used for housing, but Councillor May told the meeting the council would be “keeping our options open.”
Councillor Roper said that it could be used for the community. He added: “The land I am referring to is not the playing fields. These will be maintained.”
Local councillor for the area Joel Hirst (Odd Down, Liberal Democrat) told the council cabinet: “Steve Hedges [also Odd Down] would like to celebrate the proposal to secure the Culverhay site for education.
“While our preference would have been for a community school, retaining the site for education is very much welcome.”
Councillor Sarah Moore (Twerton, Liberal Democrat) said the school would be “welcomed” by parents in her area but called for the area not to be used for education to be clearly defined and not able to expand further.
She said: “This is a worry for residents as this site is in the perfect location for education provision and we must not lose this.
“I would also like to ask that community provision is never forgotten and the full sports and swimming facility is reinstated on this site as soon as possible.”
Councillor Hirst said: “Our young people, in particular, deserve swimming pools in local communities.
“We must continue to work hard to ensure that the site has the opportunity to have a swimming pool and fitness facilities on site.”
Construction of the two new schools is planned to begin in 2025.
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter