UPDATE: Thanks for those who have responded to my survey. I have decided not to submit an application in this wave due to inability to get media coverage and delays to 4 of the possible housing applications. I will look at what needs to be done once the dust has settled on General Election and the remaining planning applications to the North & East of Nuneaton.

Nuneaton needs new secondary school provision to cope with pressure from new developments and a population bulge that is working through our primary schools at the moment. The Government is insisting that new schools are opened via the academy/free school route and has asked for proposals through its “Wave 14” call.

At least 3 proposals are expected for a school to be built on the Top farm site off Higham lane which is owned by Warwickshire County Council. There is already Higham Lane School which is rated outstanding by OFSTED. A significant number of families are only moving to Weddington to get into the catchment for that school.

The proposed location for the new school is currently very poorly connected to new housing developments except for those on Higham Lane due to the lack of the proposed Northern Spine Road which may take almost a decade to be slowly formed through the merging of residual roads on 6 development sites.  Developments to the East on the Long Shoot/Eastboro Way have a partially awkward connection to the new school site. Further East the proposed developments around Crows Nest/Whitestone are 2-3 miles from the new School site. The school catchment area produced by adding a school first at Top Farm would be crazy.

As an alternative I am proposing that the first new secondary school should be on or near the Eastboro Way site (Attleborough fields HSG10 in local plan) which is owned at the moment by Warwickshire county council. It has planning permission for 360 homes but plans for the site have stalled. We should also look at south end of Calendar farm.

I am pushing for bidders to consider the site as a more sustainable location for the school and also hope to submit a stand-alone bid to operate an environmentally sustainable secondary school on the site to the DfE wave 14 process.

Below is the current school priority area map showing where the boundaries are for school areas, the location of 3 secondary schools in red, possible sites in yellow and missing northern link road as blue dots.

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