Telford & Wrekin Council secures land for new faith academy
Telford & Wrekin Council has secured a piece of land to enable it to build a new faith academy, subject to planning consent.
The council has originally planned was to build the planned faith academy on a piece of farmland at the end of Salisbury Avenue in Priorslee as an alternative site was not available previously.
The scheme was shelved after residents said they would prefer the school to be built on the old Celestica site at the end of Teece Drive, nearer to Priorslee Lake.
Telford & Wrekin Council has now reached agreement with the site agent the Allied Irish Bank to buy the land and build what will be the first secondary school in Priorslee on it.
A drop in session to give local residents more information will take place on Tuesday February 26 between 3.30-7.30pm at the Priorslee Campus of Wolverhampton University.
Council officers will be on hand to explain more about the new plans, including a planned scheme to make transport to the new school free of charge for all existing students of the Blessed Robert Johnson Catholic College, which will close once the new Priorslee Academy is completed.
The council already owns adjacent public football pitches which will be incorporated into and significantly improved as part of the new faith academy development.
There will remain community access to the playing fields in keeping with the aim of Telford & Wrekin Council’s Building Schools for the Future developments – which ensures each new site has a strong community use element.
If planning is approved for the new faith academy it is planned to open in September 2015 and will include a Sixth Form.
The existing Blessed Robert Johnson Catholic College will then close and that site will be used to construct the new Charlton School.
Councillor Paul Watling, cabinet member for Children, Young People and Families, said: “This again demonstrates that Telford & Wrekin Council is a Co-operative Council and that we listen to what our residents want.
“When we redesigned the Building Schools for the Future scheme in 2011, we identified that Priorslee was the best place in the borough for the new faith academy.
“However, we recognise and acknowledge that residents locally felt that the site we originally chose was not the best option.
“It has taken a while to negotiate the purchase of the new site but I am delighted that we are now in a position to announce that we have successfully secured it.”
