Proposals for a £15m Council project to build a new primary school and community health hub in MK East have taken a step nearer completion.
MK East sits between the M1 and Newport Pagnell and is an area on which 5,000 new homes will eventually be built, alongside new essential facilities, shops and play areas, and a linear river valley park.
It was granted outline planning permission last year and will be MK’s largest new housing and employment area since 2007.
The Council will take a decision on 15 March to appoint a Contractor and partners including project managers and surveyors, to help progress proposals through a pre-construction process, for a new school and community health hub – the first big project on MK East to have reached this point. The health hub will be on an adjacent site to the school and provide a range of facilities, including space for a General Practice and other multi-purpose health and community spaces.
The Council is committed to putting infrastructure into new development areas before residents move in, and into investing in school places in line with MK’s growing population, making sure every child has access to a good school place. Over the last seven years, the Council has created 4,112 new school places by building five new schools and helping 18 existing schools expand.
Cllr Zoe Nolan, Cabinet Member for Children and Families at MK Council said: “We’re excited to have taken the first major step in this process. The new school will be the first planned primary to be built in the area and we expect it to become an all-through school, providing 630 pupil places and 39 nursery places to an exciting new community. This means no stressful transitions for children as they remain there for both primary and secondary education. With an all-through school, the parents get to build a really strong relationship with the school over that period.”
The £15m scheme is being wholly funded by the Council’s successful bid to the government’s Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF). Additional HIF funding is being used to design and build the new highway infrastructure which will serve the development, including a new 32m wide bridge crossing of the M1.