Bosses at a temporary school set up in Bedminster to be ready for a large new school near Temple Meads station are asking to expand again, because the new school won’t be ready until 2027.
In October, Bristol Live revealed that the flagship new secondary school for East Bristol, to be built alongside the Feeder Canal as part of the Temple Quarter regeneration project, had been delayed yet again, and the earliest it will now be finished and open is 2027.
And that has now prompted the Oasis Academy chain to ask the city council for permission to expand its current temporary site at Spring Street in Bedminster, by an extra storey to the temporary structures and build a new single-storey building, to increase the capacity of the school by another 180 pupils.
A planning application has been submitted, and has already sparked objections from some local residents, whose homes on York Road back on to the school site, saying that the addition of extra storeys would impact their privacy.
A new school for East Bristol was the subject of a campaign for years by parents living in Barton Hill, Easton, Lawrence Hill, St Judes and St George, who faced a shortage of secondary school places in those areas, and had to send their children to schools across Bristol instead.
After years of delays in getting planning permission and funding from central government, work finally began on a site next to the Feeder in St Phillips, and the school was to be part of the council’s Temple Quarter regeneration project, alongside the expansion of Bristol University and residential development.
The Oasis Academy chain was named as the firm that would run the school, and they opened the school itself to Year 7 pupils in September 2023, originally on a temporary site within the Oasis Academy site in Brislington and then, at the start of 2024, at a council-owned former car dealer’s garage in Spring Street in Bedminster.
But work to construct the new school at Temple Quarter hit trouble and in October Bristol Live revealed it was delayed again, and wouldn’t now be finished until 2027 at the earliest. So Oasis is now faced with having to expand the capacity of the temporary site in Bedminster, and the planning application is to increase the height of two existing two-storey buildings to three storeys, and construct a new single-storey building.
Oasis has told city planners that this would increase the capacity up to 540 pupils – 180 in each of the first three years, but the actual numbers on roll aren’t as high as that – enrolment is 80 pupils less than expected, with 60 spaces in the first year.
“The scheme is a carefully designed, sustainable development that responds to its context and can be installed and removed with minimal disruption,” a spokesperson for the McAvoy Group, which is co-ordinating the temporary school expansion. “The proposed design integrates with the surrounding area in terms of building form and massing. Whilst the proposed development is for temporary accommodation, the buildings will be of good quality, providing large classrooms and high-quality spaces.
“The development will be accessible for users as well as ensure privacy and promote visual amenity with surrounding residents. Due to the nature of the proposals, all impacts will in any event be temporary when the use relocates to the schools permanent site,” they added, in a report to council planners.
“Given the critical need for additional temporary classroom space and the thoughtful design of this proposal, we trust that the Planning Department will support this application and recommend its approval to the local council members,” they added.