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1. |
Summary |
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1.1 |
At a meeting of the Education Committee on 10 October 2000, Members approved the provision of a new Primary school on the northern outskirts of Fleet to accommodate primary aged pupils from the major housing development in Elvetham Heath. The development proposals include the provision of 1,700 dwellings and the provision of a new primary school, the site of which was provided free of charge as part of the planning agreement. |
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1.2 |
At that meeting Members also agreed to the setting up of the school in temporary buildings from September 2001, in advance of the building of permanent accommodation on the site. This ensured that children of primary school age living in the new Elvetham Heath development could be accommodated from September 2001, as the timing of the credit approval for the new school would mean that the earliest date the school could open would be September 2003. Subsequently, the temporary school, comprising four classrooms, a hall and WC's along with hard playcourt, fencing, access road, pedestrian access, car parking and paths was sited during the summer 2001 and opened in September 2001. The temporary school has been positioned on the site to allow the permanent school to be constructed and when completed and handed over to the County Education Officer, the temporary school will be removed and landscaping will take place in this area. The cost of the setting up of the temporary school was funded from the Education Committee's 2001/02 temporary classroom hire budget. |
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1.3 |
Following a successful bid to the then Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) as part of the annual capital round, credit approval for 210 basic need places was approved. An allocation of £2,103,000, excluding fees, has been made in the 2002/03 Capital Programme to enable the provision of a new one form entry (1FE) Primary school in Fleet. |
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1.4 |
Since then the Director of Property, Business and Regulatory Services has progressed the design of the proposed new school and the purpose of this report is to outline the proposals and seek approval to the attached design project appraisal. |
2. |
New Primary School - Scope of the Works |
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2.1 |
The site of the proposed new Primary school, of some 1.6 hectares, will be located in the northern half of the Elvetham Heath development area, to the south of Fleet services and the M3 Motorway. Residential accommodation, some of which is still under construction, will border the site to the north-east with open Community playing fields, tennis courts and site for a new sports pavilion to the south-west. A supermarket lies to the south of the site along with the site for a proposed new church and nursery. The main entrance to the school will be from the east where access will be made from the High Street via a "local square". The site occupies a prominent part of the frontage to the High Street adjoining a small urban space and acting as a focal point. |
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2.2 |
The school has been designed to compliment the ambition and quality of the surrounding existing and proposed new homes and public buildings. The building will be of a single storey, traditional construction using facing brickwork with areas of horizontal timber cladding. The building will have a series of steeply pitched roofs covered with traditional clay tiles. |
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2.3 |
The school will provide a one form entry (1FE) Primary school to accommodate 210 pupils with an age range of 4 to 11. The building will have seven classrooms, one of which will be a reception classroom, hall, music/drama room, ICT room, library, tutorial room, craft and cooking areas, Administrative suite including staff offices, work room reception and WCs, pupil WCs, Accessible WCs for staff and pupils, kitchen and other support facilities including a plant room, stores and caretakers room. |
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2.4 |
In accordance with the guideline and requirements of the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) the school will be provided with a playing pitch, hard play court with line markings for a netball court, informal play areas directly adjacent to classrooms, dedicated reception play area with security fencing, environmental study area and other soft grassed areas. Additional landscaping will include appropriate tree planting to provide screening from neighbouring properties, boundary walls, railings, fencing and hedge planting, pathways and low level planting. |
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2.5 |
The building is to be naturally ventilated and all artificial lighting will be high efficiency fluorescents. Non-solvent based low odour paints will be used throughout and the main heat source of the building will be from energy efficient gas fired condensing boilers. The building will meet all the requirements of the new Building Regulations in respect of insulation and heat loss. |
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2.6 |
Further details of the proposed scheme can be found in the attached design project appraisal. |
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3. |
Funding and Timing |
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3.1 |
An allocation of £2,103,000, excluding fees, has been included in the Education Committee's 2002/03 Capital Programme for the provision of a new primary school as outlined in the attached design project appraisal. |
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3.2 |
It is proposed that this project be procured using a two-stage tender process in order to take advantage of the contractors input into the procurement process and ensure a high quality product. Four preferred contractors will be selected on the basis of recent performance and invited to tender. The design team will then work with the selected contractor to fix a price within the identified financial framework. |
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3.3 |
Subject to the necessary approvals it is anticipated that the four contractors identified will be invited to tender during March 2002 and work will commence during August 2002 and be completed for school occupation during July 2003 with the landscaping works ongoing. |
Conclusion |
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The proposed new school will provide 210 basic need places to meet population growth following the new housing development at Elvetham Heath. Approval is accordingly sought to the attached building design appraisal. |
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Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report and attached appraisal. NB the list excludes: 1. Published works. 2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act. TITLE FILE Building Management System reports, Property, Management & Site surveys and investigations, Information File - PB&R Architect's plans. EMP&R0402b |
