Plan to move part of Curnow Special School to Illogan moves a step closer

Plans  to integrate part of Curnow School into the grounds of Illogan School have passed the first hurdle.

On Wednesday, Illogan Parish councillors voted by six votes to two to support the proposal in principal, although they raised concerns about traffic.

Formally, they said: "Members expressed concern that there does not appear to be adequate provision for the extra traffic to and from the site and this council recommends that the entrance and exit is double track to that pupils can be dropped off and other vehicles can still pass."

Terry Wilkins MBE, who represents Illogan on both the parish council and Cornwall Council, is a governor at both schools.

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He said: "I'm fully supportive of this project. I've been involved from the start.

"Parish chairman David Ekinsmyth and I went to the consultation evenings and we are quite excited by it.

"It's only going to be 34 children from Curnow School, who will have their own classrooms but will integrate with the other children for things like art and music. It's a great idea.

"I know there have been some concerns expressed about parking, but the Curnow children will be bussed in and out and their arrival and departure times will be staggered."

The proposal, put together by HLM architects of Plymouth, would see Curnow School's primary age children educated in new buildings on the Illogan School site.

This would allow older children, who would stay at Curnow School, to be taught in improved facilities.

The Illogan School site would change dramatically with a major new build to provide space for the Curnow' children.

Illogan School would benefit from a new, larger hall, improved storage and break-out spaces in some classrooms, renovated and repositioned kitchen facilities and a learning resource centre in the old school hall.

There would also be an enlarged playing field (5,000 sq m) and 2,820 square metres of mixed hard and soft play areas.

The Curnow facility would get 600 square metres of hard social space, 350 square metres of soft social space and 950 square metres of garden space

There would 34 staff parking bays plus five minibus parking and drop off bays.

A one-way system would be introduced on the site to ease traffic flow.

If the plans are approved work could start at the end of the summer term, with work finished within a year.