Colchester: Plans considered for nursery school (From Gazette)

Colchester: Plans considered for nursery school

Plans for a nursery school on a parcel of land in Colchester have moved a step nearer.

Turner Rise Development Consortium wants to build the school and houses and create open space at Turner Rise.

Residents have been fighting to save the site on the estate. It was set aside for a new school but Essex County Council lost the chance to buy it after failing to complete paperwork on time.

This gave the developers the right to do what they wanted with the land.

The Local Government Ombudsman has been asked by the consortium to investigate the circumstances under which the "proposed school site" was lost.

The county has indicated it is looking to build primary schools at other sites in the area to serve future house building at Turner Village and Severalls Hospital.

The outline planning application will be discussed by the borough's planning and traffic regulation committee tomorrow.

Council officers have recommended that the county be given a third of the cash from the sale of the land to only be spent on primary places in the north of the town.

Myland Parish Council chairman Peter Mecklenburgh said: "The residential part of the plan is the best of two evils.

"There is this plan for a private nursery, but the consensus is there will only be a handful of children who will be needing that school. It will mean that people will come from all over Colchester."

He said the council feared the access road to the nursery was not big enough to accommodate the extra traffic.

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