A bigger and permanent new building for Special Educational Needs (SEN) school The Rise School has been granted planning approval in Feltham.
The proposal for the free school to be built on part of the existing car park at Feltham Community College (FCC), in Browell's Lane, will have places for 96 children with special needs, more than double the current number of admissions of 40.
The two-storey building will contain 15 classrooms, a number of offices, a dining area, kitchens, a hall and ancillary spaces, plus 100 full-time staff.
It will mean the existing car park will lose 25 spaces bringing on-site parking down to 204, of which 16 spaces will be allocated to the new school and the remaining used by the existing school.
Negotiations are in place for further parking spaces for teachers at Leisure West as well as plans for a new covered cycle storage facility on schools grounds.
A new off-street cycle track providing safe cycle links and priority for cyclists entering and exiting the school is also in its design stages.
The Rise School which opened in September 2014 for four to 19-year-old children with autism is currently housed in a smaller, temporary, single-storey accommodation on another part of the same site.
Given the urgent need for special needs school spaces in the borough, the new-build which is part designated on green belt land has been considered acceptable.
But as it does not fall into one of the acceptable categories of development within the Green Belt in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), it is considered to be a departure from the Development Plan.
With an area of green verge lost within the application new trees and planting have been included in the redesign.
The Rise School will co-exist with FCC, promoting inclusive education and shared provision within the two schools to give pupils a wider range of opportunities.
