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28
Mar
Cable diversion to begin on site allocated for new £6 million Knaresborough school
Work to divert an electric cable, which has been blamed for a five-year delay constructing a £6 million primary school at Manse Farm in Knaresborough, is finally due to begin.
North Yorkshire Council announced plans for new schools “to serve housing growth” in Knaresborough and Northallerton in 2020.
But while a £7 million school opened in Northallerton in September, work has yet to begin in Knaresborough, where about 1,000 homes are being built at Manse Farm and neighbouring Highfield Farm. A total of 726 of these are being constructed by Taylor Wimpey.
The overhead cable that runs across land on the school site needs to be diverted before the land can be handed over to the council.
To enable this to happen, a connection needs to be made on highway land close to Aldi on the A59 roundabout. Because it is on highway land, the work needs to be approved by the council’s highways team.
Work has stalled amid confusion over who is responsible for each stage of the process.
The Stray Ferret spent two months sending numerous emails to the council, Taylor Wimpey, electrical distribution company Northern Powergrid and utilities connection company Power On to try to resolve the confusion over who was responsible for the hold-up.
Now approval has finally been secured, which means a programme can be agreed for the diversion works.
A spokesperson for Power On, which has been appointed by Taylor Wimpey to carry out the work, said:
There have been numerous phases on this project where both Power On and Northern Powergrid have worked sequentially to complete both our and their elements of the works, respectively.
We are now at the stage where we have gained the required approvals from North Yorkshire Council to complete the remainder of our works in the public highway from the March 31 until April 13. This will then enable Northern Powergrid to complete the next stage of their works, which involves a complex programme of electrical diversions as well as the removal of overhead lines.
A council image of how the Manse Farm school would look.
Will the school go-ahead?
The council said in 2020 the new school would have capacity for 210 pupils at first and eventually 420. The plans also included a nursery.
But will it still go-ahead with council finances so tight?
Last year Amanda Newbold, the council’s assistant director for inclusion, said “there is still that commitment to deliver this project at the appropriate time”. But she added: “As there would be for any project of this scale, the council will undertake regular reviews before it is able to confirm delivery of the school.”
Responding to questions from the Stray Ferret this month, Ms Newbold said:
Development works were postponed due to an overhead electric cable that runs across the land where the new school is due to be built. A sub-station still needs to be built on the land and the cable diverted before the school site can be transferred to us. We can confirm our highways service has granted a permit. As for any project of this scale, we are monitoring the impacts of the delays so far
Jon Holden, strategic planning officer at the council, told a council meeting last week he was not concerned about the delay because current primary schools in Knaresborough had the capacity to cope.
The cable issue may finally be resolved, but the wider question about whether the school will ever be built and, if so when, remains unanswered.
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