St Ambrose Barlow RC High School

News: February 2012

Construction work has now begun on the new St Ambrose Barlow School building on the Wardley site.

Over the last year there have been a number of meetings between Laing O'Rourke, the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) team and local residents. As a result information has been bought together which responds to the most commonly asked questions:

When is it proposed to start building the school?
How will pupils and staff access the site?
Why is the site laid out in the way that it is? How far will the building be away from the nearest houses?
How many students will attend the school?
What hours of the day will the building be used?
Where will the children be coming from?
How will the children travel to school?
What kind of boundary will there be between the school and neighbouring properties?
How will you ensure that disruption to residents is kept to a minimum once the construction work starts?
Who do I contact if I have questions about activity on the site?

When is it proposed to start building the school?
Preparatory works will begin almost immediately with construction starting in the autumn of 2011. The new building will be open for Easter 2012.

How will pupils and staff access the site?
The application for outline planning permission showed that the only vehicle access to the site was to be from Ash Drive, although this was not fixed. We have taken on board the views of local residents, particularly those expressed at the Planning Panel meeting. It has now been agreed that vehicle access will be from the A6 road. This will be the main vehicular access to the site for staff and visitors.

In the revised plans no staff or visitor access will be made from Ash Drive, other than access to a small number of disabled parking spaces and access by service vehicles. Controlled pedestrian access will be possible from both the A6 and Ash Drive to ensure that the site is as accessible as possible to those travelling by public transport or by foot.

By providing the main access from the A6 and ensuring the accessibility of the site to non-car users, traffic movements onto Ash Drive will be kept to a minimum and will be much lower than the level of traffic movements which Salford City Council highway officers have deemed to be acceptable.

There have been particular discussions with residents about the pedestrian access from Ash Drive. It has been agreed that there will be further discussions, prior to the school opening, on how this entrance is to be controlled, as this will be an issue which the school will have to manage.

How many students will attend the school?
The school is to be built for 750 students between 11 and 16 years of age with a sixth form for 250 students who would be over 16 years of age.

Why is the site laid out in the way that it is? How far will the building be away from the nearest houses?
A site plan is now available to download below. The architects have had to balance several issues of approximately equal importance in laying out the site, namely:

The impact on existing residential properties in terms of privacy and daylight/sunlight and disturbance
The impact on the openness and visual amenity of the green belt
Physical site constraints (such as its topography, disused mine works under part of the site and boundary hedging)
The proximity of the high-voltage power lines
The proximity of the M60 motorway
The extent of the Hazardous Installations Outer Consultation Zone, which is related to the British Oxygen works on Wardley industrial estate

All of these issues restrict the position on the site where the school can be built, with large parts of the site not suitable for development. The layout of the school within the developable area and its configuration has been carefully considered to ensure that the final scheme achieves the optimum balance between these issues.

As part of the final planning application, the all weather pitch has been moved following consultation with residents on Ash Drive. It is now on the other side of the building towards the motorway. Further work will be carried out to assess the effect of this on the nearby farm. Every effort has been made to ensure that areas of car parking are as far from the boundaries of residential properties as possible (balanced against the need to ensure that the location of car parking is accessible to the building).

The building is a minimum of 30 meters away from neighbouring properties and in most cases much further.

What hours of the day will the building be used?
The building will be used by the school during normal school hours. The building and some external areas, such as the all weather pitch, will be available for use by the community outside of schools hours, during the evenings and weekends.

Where will the children be coming from?
The existing pupils at St Ambrose Barlow High School come from quite a wide area, mostly to the east of the new site. The governors of the school are responsible for deciding who is admitted to the school in the future.

How will the children travel to school?
It is difficult to predict exactly how children will travel, but the school will have to develop a school travel plan to encourage the use of green methods of travel, such as walking, cycling and the use of public transport.

We anticipate that many children will use the existing bus services on the A6 Road and that some may use Moorside railway station. Assessments will be conducted with the school to determine the need for any school buses to bring children to the school.

The need for bus drop-off points on the A6 will be further assessed.

What kind of boundary will there be between the school and neighbouring properties?
Areas of planting to provide screening will be placed close to residential boundaries. Plans for this have not yet been finalised as we want to consult with residents and to meet their needs as far as possible. Consultation on this issue will take place in the next few months.

How will you ensure that disruption to residents is kept to a minimum once the construction work starts?
The contractor for the scheme is Laing O’Rourke Construction (North). They have already been part of the consultation with residents and have established links with the newly formed Wardley Residents' Association. There will be further meetings with the residents' group in the next few weeks. This will allow issues and questions to be raised and for residents to be informed of developments. There will be a website keeping people informed and a phone number to call if there are any issues which need to be addressed urgently.

Further information can be obtained from the website of the Local Education Partnership who are responsible for delivering the school.

Every effort will be made to minimise the impact on residents, but this is a large project and some disruption to normal life is unfortunately inevitable. The site will be registered as a ‘Considerate Contractors’ scheme, which ensures that the range of measures set out above are followed.

Who do I contact if I have question about activity on the site?
If you have any questions about activity on the site please consult the website of the Local Education Partnership or contact:

Nin Khoshaba
Project Liaison Officer
Laing O’Rourke Construction
North Archway
3 Birley Fields
Hulme
Manchester
M15 5QJ

Telephone: 0161 227 6100
Email: nkhoshaba@laingorourke.com