Plans for a new secondary and special education needs (SEN) school in Sutton have been approved even though the housing secretary noted that it did not fulfil a policy requirement for "exemplary design".
The appeal considered plans for:
The council initially refused the application, but housing secretary Robert Jenrick took the appeal for his own consideration.
It was agreed that there was a need in the area for additional school provisions for both secondary and SEN places, but much of the debate came around the design of the project. The building was designed to be four stories high, classifying it as a "taller building" in the local plan, but the area it was to be built in was not one of the "areas of tall building potential" in the borough.
It was also noted that the number of classrooms without natural light was "not insignificant" by Jenrick, with 16 of the proposed secondary school classrooms having no windows. The staff room at the SEN school would have no windows, along with two specialist teaching spaces.
Although the housing secretary accepted that the scheme had both internal and external design deficiencies, in the planning balance felt the appeal should be allowed due to the need for school places in the local area.
