Jan 12, 2023, Somerset Live: Work on Somerset's new £18 million special needs school reaches major milestone https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/work-somersets-new-18-million-8016869
SW England
The new school in Clevedon will offer additional spaces for children with profound and complex learning difficulties
Construction of a controversial new £18 million [$22M] special school in Clevedon has reached a major milestone. Work on the new school, which will be an expansion of Baytree School in Weston, started on a site at Brookfield Walk last May.
The new school will take Baytree from a single site that caters for 72 children with profound and complex learning difficulties, to two sites, offering around 120 school places. The steel frame for the new school has now been finished with a special ceremony held to mark its completion….
In 2019, authority education chiefs announced plans to expand the current Baytree Special School to the Clevedon site to cope with a rising demand for places. Council chiefs have been working with leaders at Baytree School in Worle since 2016, looking at how to increase provision for students.
The demand for spaces has risen over recent years with some students having to be educated outside the area. Forecasting shows that the demand is to increase further due to the housing growth in the area and that the need for additional spaces is now 'acute.'…
However, residents have fought the plans all the way and said Brookfield Walk - popular with families and dog walkers and one of the only green spaces in the area - was the wrong location.
Residents claimed the area should be protected as it lies in the green belt and is home to many species of wildlife, including slow worms, bats and badgers.
The steel frame of the new special school at Brookfield Walk, Clevedon has been completed (Image: North Somerset Council)