Fears new school in Havant will create ‘danger’ and ‘chaos’ on surrounding roads if granted approval

It comes after Acorn Education and Care applied to Havant Borough Council for planning permission to change the use of offices in East Street to provide a special education school for 70 pupils. However residents living in St Faith’s have expressed concerned about the lack of parking, the already congested roads, the multi-use of the busy car parks and the 70 taxis that are needed to drop off and pick up the children at the proposed new school at McCormack House. They have said they want their objections and concerns to be heard before planners make a decision on the scheme.

A row was sparked by a failure to deliver a public meeting between residents and the applicant that was ‘promised’ by now council leader, Councillor Phil Munday and Councillor Gillian Harris at a pre-local election hustings at St Faiths Church on April 27. Resident April Williams and the now Reform UK councillor Sharon Collings took the opportunity to ask the candidates, including now leader of the Havant Borough Council Phil Munday, about the McCormack House project.

Cllr Munday said he now knows he cannot deliver on that promise to make that meeting happen. He said the meeting is important between Acorn and residents to create the right environment for the school to thrive and ’assuage the fears of local residents’ about two main issues: behaviour of children at the school and the transport and traffic situation.

Acorn said it will hold a public meeting after the planning application has been decided which has angered residents in the area. Ms Williams said the residents’ concerns are not over the behaviour of the excluded children attending but the feel Cllr Munday has gone back on his promise. Ms Williams is open-minded as to whether or not Cllr Munday understood he couldn’t deliver on that pre-planning decision meeting promise.

She said at least 20 residents are ‘very upset and frustrated’ by the situation. She said once the school opens, if approved, it will be the residents that have to deal with any problems on the roads. “You can’t make more parking spaces,” she said.

Ms Williams said the traffic problem is bad enough, let alone adding queuing taxis backing up into East Street and residential roads that have parked cars on them that do not belong to residents. She said she fears chaos and danger if the plan goes ahead.

The residents see the new school traffic as adding to the existing traffic congestion problem. Ms Williams said some cars belong to people who ‘dump and run’ and leave their cars while they catch a train and go to London or even on Holiday for a week. There is the issue of the overly busy car parks next to the Spring that will be used by the school as a drop-off and pick-up area for the 70 children – the majority arriving by taxis from around Hampshire, according to planning documents.

She said this is ‘dangerous’ and ‘unworkable’ as it is a space used by cyclists, walkers, dog walkers, horse-riders and both elderly and young people visiting the Spring, the Hayling Billy trail and Shipwrights Way. The applicant has suggested a staggered drop-off of pupils between 8am to 9.30am as part of the traffic management plan.

Also at the St Faith’s Church pre-election meeting, St Faith’s parent and now councillor, Sharon Collings, said schools for additional needs are great but the location is wrong because of the traffic. She said there is a busy staggered crossroads, a junction with a bus stop. Carers and parents taking children to two schools Fairfield and Bosmere and in addition Amazon trucks every day in and out of Havant.

She said at the hustings: “Does someone need to die before it’s too late?”

At the moment, Hampshire Highways, which makes traffic and highways assessments, said its criteria has not been met by the Acorn proposal. Cllr Munday said the application is set to go before the planning committee for discussion and allow residents to make representations before a decision.

He said, in his experience as a secondary school head, there is a higher proportion of teachers to students 30 to 70, to manage the behaviourally challenging 11 to 18 years old who will be closely supervised.

A revised travel plan, and drop-off and pick-up management plan have been uploaded to the planning portal for the planning application APP/23/00996 and residents have been sent letters and asked for their comments by June 5. Acorn Education and Care has been approached for comment.