Nursery scheme would be "dangerous" (From Salisbury Journal)

Nursery scheme would be "dangerous"

11:40am Tuesday 9th October 2012 in Headlines By Corey Ross

A NURSERY proposed for a school site has been refused planning permission after neighbours said it would add to existing traffic problems.

Wiltshire Council has submitted plans for the nursery on a little-used grassed area at Avon Valley College, Durrington, to provide a pre-school for 36 children.

But people living near the school are worried about the access to the site off the already busy The Ham.

Speaking at a meeting of thecouncil’s southern area planning committee on Thursday, resident Graham Amos said: “The Ham is a narrow residential road which reduces to one-car passable at one stage.

“All the people travelling to this pre-school would have to negotiate this residential lane, which is already overused by people going to and from the college.”

But Naomi Defriend, from the council’s early years team, said they need somewhere in Durrington to meet the government’s requirement to provide further free early years education. “We currently have nowhere to place them and in two years’ time we will have ten times as many children,” she said. “We have to build this nursery.”

She said there would be several ways to get to the nursery and not everyone would be using The Ham, with many people walking with pushchairs.

But the committee was not convinced it was the right location and said there would at least need to be a green travel plan put forward before the proposal could be considered for approval.

Cllr Chris Devine said: “Nobody likes to stand in the way of education facilities but we’re being asked to support a half-baked scheme. To support this without infrastructure is too dangerous.”

The committee voted unanimously to refuse the application.