Draft Regulation 18 Sandwell Local Plan
Education Facilities
7.62 A variety of services are required to meet the needs of new residents, including education facilities. It is important that these facilities can be easily accessed by sustainable forms of transport and meet the variety of needs for different age groups and educational needs.
Policy SHO9 – Education Facilities
- New nursery, school and further and higher education facilities should be:
- well-designed, to the relevant local / national standards / guidance in place, and should complement and enhance neighbourhood services and amenities;
- well-served by public transport infrastructure, walking, and cycling facilities, particularly in centres, and located to minimise the number and length of journeys needed in relation to the home to school travel distances; and
- wherever possible, located to address accessibility gaps in terms of the standards set out in Policy SHO3, particularly where a significant amount of new housing is proposed.
- New and improved education facilities will be secured through a range of funding measures:
- Where a housing development of ten or more homes would increase the need for education facilities to the extent that new or improved facilities would be required to meet this need, planning obligations or Community Infrastructure Levy will be secured sufficient to meet the need in a timely manner, where this is financially viable.
- Contributions will be secured retrospectively where forward funding of improvements is necessary to meet immediate needs.
- For sites where there is likely to be a requirement for on-site provision of new schools, this is set out in Appendix B.
- Where land is provided for a new school as part of a housing development, the financial contribution made by that development towards education facilities will be reduced accordingly.
- On sites where the education facility requirement is proven not to be viable, the maximum proportion of funding will be sought that will not undermine the viability of the development, subject to securing other planning obligations necessary for the development to gain planning permission. A financial viability assessment will be required to be submitted, meeting the requirements set out in Policy SHO6.
- New and redeveloped education facilities should include provision for wider community use of sports and other facilities where this would be in accordance with evidence of need, secured through a suitably worded community use agreement
- The existing network of education facilities will be protected and proposals that seek to enhance this network will be supported. The physical enhancement and expansion of higher and further educational facilities and related business and research will be supported where it helps to realise the educational, training and research potential of Sandwell.
- Proposals involving the loss, in part or the whole of an education facility will be permitted only where adequate alternative provision is available to meet the needs of the community served by the facility.
Justification
7.63 Rising demand for school places in recent years, due to a combination of high birth rates, inward migration, retention levels and housing growth, has resulted in the expansion of a significant number of existing schools and an increased need for new schools across the Black Country. This investment has largely been funded by Local Education Authorities, as housing sites within the Sandwell area do not demonstrate sufficient viability to provide for their own educational needs.
7.64 Housing growth over the Plan period is likely to generate the need for further investment in education provision for all age groups, including nursery and further and higher education. National guidance sets out the presumption that housing developments will fund the provision of education facilities sufficient to meet their own needs, including the provision of land for the construction of new buildings where necessary. However, the Viability and Delivery Study indicates that depending on the extent of other planning obligations required, this may not be viable on some sites. Where it can be proved that it is not viable for a housing development to fund all its own education facility needs, the developer should work with the Local Education Authority to investigate available options and ensure that these needs can and will be met.
7.65 Improvements to existing educational settings should be explored to help address low educational attainment. It is important that any investment in educational settings is focussed to support centres, address accessibility gaps, generate maximum service improvements and secure community benefits. Increasing community use of school sports facilities would make a major contribution towards meeting open space, sport and recreation standards and improving health through increased sports participation.
7.66 The preferred location for major education facilities, which generate many trips, is the network of identified centres. However, there may be cases where a development is isolated from a centre or provision within a centre may not be possible. In such cases the priority, when selecting a location, should be addressing accessibility gaps in accordance with access standards set out in Policy SHO3, to maximise sustainable access to the facility.
7.67 Locally-based Academy Trusts, higher and further education institutions, play a major role in the Sandwell economy and have a key role in helping deliver economic and social transformation. Attracting and retaining graduates within Sandwell is also key to securing a knowledge-based economy. The Higher and Further Education sector is a major driver of economic, social, and cultural regeneration and ongoing investment in the existing network of this sector is supported. Initiatives that strengthen linkages between the sector and the wider economy will also be supported.