Councillors give green light for Brethren school

A Plymouth Brethren school is set to open in Chronicle Country.

Central Beds councillors approved planning permission for the school at the former Simply Oak restaurant in Potton Road, Biggleswade at a meeting of the development management committee on Wednesday (June 19).

A previous application was rejected in February on the grounds that it was in an unsustainable location.

Councillors were reminded that the fact that it is a Plymouth Brethren school is not relevant to the planning application.

Andrew Beard from CSJ Planning spoke on behalf of the applicants. He said that the plans to transport the majority of the pupils to school by minibus would make the school sustainable and added: “Sustainability is also about reusing vacant buildings.”

The applicant, Ermine Education Trust, supplied more sustainability details in this new application.

Councillors agreed that they could now see that the school would be sustainable.

Councillor Alan Shadbolt said: “I was against it last time but this report is a lot clearer and a lot better.”

The application was approved with 12 votes in favour and three abstentions.

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