New housing development may be built without secondary school

A 2,500-home development in Wiltshire might be built without a secondary school.

Ashton Park, to the south east of Trowbridge, will be the county’s biggest new housing development.

It will have 14 hectares of employment land, two primary schools, and “allocation for a secondary school.”

When members of Wiltshire Council’s strategic planning committee granted planning permission on July 29 they questioned the meaning of ‘allocation’.

Council officers explained that due to the county’s declining birth rate, and the fact that the two existing secondary schools in Trowbridge – John of Gaunt and Clarendon – are undersubscribed, the cost of building a third might not be justified.

That news was met with “frustration” by Cllr Stewart Palmén (Lib Dem, Trowbridge Central) portfolio holder for schools, and by committee chairman Ernie Clark (Independent, Hilperton) who lamented “no school for villages east of Trowbridge.”

So, the sprawling development will be build with space for a comprehensive school. Developers will run waterworks, electricity, and broadband onto the site. But the school itself might never be built.

This week, Councillor Jon Hubbard, Wiltshire Council’s cabinet member for children’s services, education and skills, clarified: “While the approved application includes the provision of land for a new secondary school we have to consider the wider picture, as we have a surplus of 400 places in the existing secondary schools around Trowbridge.

“In addition, there is a falling birth rate in the area, so currently there isn’t sufficient additional demand to warrant or make viable a whole new secondary school.

“We will, however, continue to review the numbers and have secured the land to enable the creation of an additional secondary school should the position change.”

Without a new secondary school, younger residents of Ashton Park will face a three-and-a-half mile trip through the already-congested centre of Trowbridge.