Proposal to permanently expand The Dingle Primary School

Cheshire East Borough Council has a statutory duty to ensure that there are sufficient pupil places to meet the current and future demand for pupil places across the borough. Similar to other areas in Cheshire East, Haslington has been facing a growth in the demand for places driven by an increasing pupil population and new housing developments.

Due to increasing demand, the school has been admitting over their Published Admission Number (PAN) over the previous years to meet the need in the Haslington planning area. The Dingle Primary School is currently rated as ‘Good’ by OFSTED.

The proposed expansion does not fall with the category of a significant enlargement and is therefore not subject to formal School Organisation procedures, which include statutory consultation. However, in order to ensure that the local community are made aware of the planned changes, the Council has requested that the Governing Body communicates its intentions and allows time for any feedback.

If the proposal goes ahead, 70 additional places will be offered to children from Reception to Year 6 from September 2024, taking the PAN from 50 to 60 per year group. The site at The Dingle Primary School is able to accommodate the new number of children, subject to planning approvals.

Following completion of a Feasibility Report as issued in February 2022, the following proposal was the preferred solution in order to deliver the additional school capacity:

• Conversion of an existing unsuitable internal classroom to Studio complete with folding partition wall to main Hall;
• Conversion of Year 3/4 Classroom to create a Chair and Table Store and two Group Rooms;
• Single storey extension with two classrooms and small store;
• Extension of parking area to provide 8 additional parking spaces;
• Improvements to pedestrian access including new cycle shelter;
• New Multi Use Games Area with all-weather surfacing to corner of existing playing field to offset loss of hard surfaced play for extension and parking.

16 January 2023 - committee meeting

Children and Families Committee met to consider approval for progressing to  the final stages of design and construction.

• Read the report and minutes from the meeting.

22 July 2022 - consultation closed 

No feedback was received by the closing date. 

Page last reviewed: 22 June 2022