Council rules out rebuilding school to cope with housing growth near Milton Keynes

Education chiefs at Milton Keynes Council have been considering a range of ways of providing new classroom space in Hanslope, which is expected to grow by nearly 300 homes.

Background papers to be considered by a meeting next week reveal that the council has considered both knocking down and rebuilding Hanslope Primary School, and building a second, smaller school in the village.

They’ve considered keeping Hanslope Primary School and building another small new school in a different spot. But they say it would cost about £5.5million and would need a three acre site, which is “unlikely to be available” in the village.

They’ve also considered whether to demolish Hanslope Primary School and rebuilding it as a larger school on a five acre site. Officers reckon this would cost just short of £10million and would be against the wishes of the village’s pending neighbourhood plan.

So they’ve plumped for expanding the current village school at a cost of £4.132million. They’ve already got the land as part of an agreement with housing developers.

Cllr Zoe Nolan (Lab, Loughton & Shenley), the MK Council cabinet member for children and families, will be asked to decide whether to launch a hunt for a company to expand the school at a Delegated Decisions meeting next Tuesday (Oct 15).

Nine possible firms have already been identified to carry out the work and there will be a competition between them to decide which one wins the work.

If Cllr Nolan agrees, the contract could be awarded as early as December, with construction set to go ahead between November 2020 and August 2021. The expanded school is set to be ready by September 2021.