Poynton: Former Vernon Infants set to become special needs school

The vacant Vernon Infant School at Poynton, which stands in the grounds of the existing Vernon Primary School, closed several years ago.

This week Cheshire East's economy and growth committee voted unanimously to remove it from the council’s housing development framework so it would be reassigned for provision as a SEND school.

Cllr Jos Saunders (Image: Cheshire East Council) Poynton councillor Jos Saunders (Con) welcomed the proposal for the new school and said one of the financial challenges facing the council was due to the lack of SEND provision.

“It costs us money to send children out of the area in terms of transport, in terms of places, but the biggest cost is to the child themselves, because they're spending hours travelling around the county, or out of the county,” said Cllr Saunders.

“This would enable our children to be hopefully closer to their local communities and allow them to have their friends locally as well, because they miss out on so much when they're not being educated near their own homes.”

But she added: “In terms of how quickly it happens, I do hope that we have learnt from previous expansions.

“I'm thinking of the one in Wilmslow, which was the expansion of Springfields. That came in a year late and it was double the original budget.”

Cllr Janet Clowes (Image: Cheshire East Council)

Conservative group leader Janet Clowes said: “I think it's well understood that there is a desperate need for additional SEND provision.

“What efforts are being made to expedite the planning process and the design process and the development business case, so that we do not fall behind with progressing this in a timely way, as has been the problem before?”

“I'm really concerned that if we don't get on with this it’ll actually pass us by and it will come back to this committee, simply because we haven't had the mechanisms in place to do it at pace.”

Peter Skates, acting executive director of place, said: “We will speak with our planning colleagues in normal pre app discussion sort of style to ensure there are no issues ahead of that business case being generated and completed, that the planning processes will be there to be as prompt and as streamlined as possible, so we're all behind colleagues in children and families to try and deliver this as quickly as possible.”