Former Weymouth school set to reopen
Cromwell Road is to cater for children with special educational needs
A former Weymouth school, which also served as a family centre, is expected to become a school once again.
A prior approval application seeks to use the former Cromwell Road school, previously used as a Horizon family centre and by Weldmar Hospicecare, to a school for children with special educational needs.
The application comes from Melrose Education Limited which say the use would protect a community facility and make good use of a building designed for education – with both Weymouth Central Boys’ School and Cromwell Road Infant School previously occupying the site.
Once the school use ceased the buildings were adapted to become as a family centre, including hosting supervised visits between children and their estranged parents.
Weldmar later used the site as a day centre and for a base for its community nurses between 2019 and 2022 with the site being empty since July in that year.
Melrose Education say they would use the site to cater for children aged 8-16 with social, emotional and mental health needs, including autism spectrum conditions, attention deficit and other learning difficulties.
The company say access to the site would remain as it is and the amount of traffic generated would be no more than for previous uses, with 20 car parking spaces to remain on the site after the layout is slightly changed to incorporate a new play area.
The school will operate from 9.00am to 3.30pm from Monday to Friday during school terms, with pupils dropped off between 8.30 and 9.00am and collected from 2.45 until 3.45pm.
The company say break times would be staggered with approximately 25-30 students outside at any one time, with outdoor Physical Education lessons having a limited class size of approximately 8-10 students at any one time – both smaller numbers than when the site was previously used as a school.
No significant changes are being proposed to the external appearance of the building with the exception of the creation of a new play area with specialist equipment suitable for the needs of the pupils.
A resident in the road and Weymouth Town Council have both asked for measures to be considered to prevent ‘pavement parking’ when carers and taxis drop off and collect pupils from the site – both pointing out that the road is normally congested.