More time for comment on Education’s plans

Many of the plans have now been published online, along with traffic impact assessments.

The plans were submitted at the start of last week but people who were interested had to go to Sir Charles Frossard House to study them.

The deadline for comment was originally next week – the day after Boxing Day. The complete plans, more than 500 pages, are available to view only at Sir Charles Frossard House, which is open between 9am and 5pm on weekdays. The building is shut on Christmas and Boxing Day.

Education president Matt Fallaize said the original deadline would not have given the public enough time to view the plans.

‘The committee always recognised that it would be unsatisfactory to require representations for these developments to be submitted before the new year,’ he said.

‘The 21-day consultation period for this planning application starts once the site notices have been erected, which will allow representations to be submitted up to 23 January.’

Vale deputy Mary Lowe had raised concerns about the original tight deadline.

‘December is a particularly busy time for most people leading up to Christmas,’ she said.

‘With such major changes to the education system, including the infrastructure extending the schools, more in my opinion has to be done than just having the plans available [weekdays at Frossard House].

‘Office hours are not ideal or fair to the parents involving thousands of children who will attend the two schools, the teaching staff involved, agencies visiting and working within the schools, and all those living in the surrounding areas.’

Two neighbour drop-ins were held at the schools last week, which the media were not allowed to attend. One resident who attended criticised members of the Education committee for not attending.

Deputy Fallaize said: ‘The resident drop-in sessions were extremely useful in gaining further understanding of the views of residents who live locally to both college sites.

‘The proposed changes have been designed to significantly reduce the impact of school traffic in the lanes around the colleges with the safety of students, school staff and residents as an absolute priority.’

De Saumarez College will be at the site of Les Beaucamps High School and Victor Hugo College at St Sampson’s High School.

The plans propose that the Castel site will see a new one-storey building created on the multi-use games area and a two-storey building behind it.

This will allow the school to expand from around 500 to 1,400 pupils.

In St Sampson’s, three new two-storey buildings will be building behind the existing school, allowing it to take 1,500 pupils – up from 700.

It is planned that only four extra parking spaces will be created at the Castel site, while at St Sampson’s there will be 80 extra spaces.

Education has said that car parking on both sites was in line with the requirement of Planning and Building Control, which allow parking provision for a maximum of 75% of staff.

Currently, approximately 85% of school staff drive to work. Education hopes to cut this to 75%.

It is also planned that more pupils will walk and cycle to school.

Some routes will be closed to non-residents in order to provide a safe walking and cycling route for students and alternative nearby drop-off locations are being proposed to allow improved traffic flow for school buses and school staff.

On-site drop-offs will be permitted before and after school buses arrive.

Staff and children with specific needs will be able to access the sites by car.

Education has now published diagrams of the planning application on the States website, gov.gg, so the public can see the layout of the new schools will be.