Planning application to be considered for Thurston Community College, near Bury St Edmunds, for parking, drop-off points and playing field

Plans have been submitted for an additional car park for a large secondary school to take pressure off existing car park entrances.

The proposal for Thurston Community College, near Bury St Edmunds, is for 60 car parking spaces, drop-off points, cycle parking and a school playing field, for land to the west of Ixworth Road.

Thurston Community College is one of the biggest schools in Suffolk, with about 1,500 students on roll including the sixth form, its headteacher Maéve Taylor said in July.

The community college is in the village of Thurston, in Norton Road, and has a sixth form campus, Thurston Sixth, nearby in Beyton.

The planning application, by Suffolk County Council (SCC), is accompanied by a revised site plan showing an increase to 15 drop-off spaces in total.

A planning statement by Concertus Design and Property Consultants Limited, on behalf of SCC, said: “The project will greatly benefit the Thurston Community College in providing both a safe means of dropping off students for the college and an additional area of playing field required to mitigate for increasing numbers of pupils.

“It will also provide additional parking which will alleviate the existing car park entrances on the site.”

The plans say there will be one entry and exit point for vehicles from the car park on to Ixworth Road, with the car park using the existing bell mouth entrance to the north of the site which was installed by Persimmon Homes.

There would also be a crossing point for pedestrians at this entrance to ‘ensure the safety of pedestrians from the developments to the north of Ixworth Road’.

A new pedestrian entrance on the eastern boundary of the site is also proposed, which would link into the existing cycle and footpath on Ixworth Road.

The site boundary would be fenced with 1800mm high weldmesh fencing, with a tree-lined boundary on the eastern aspect of the site to be in keeping with the existing street scene.

It is proposed that asphalt surfacing would be used for the car park and drop-off area and the surfacing for the footpaths and cycle shelter would be finished with a contrasting paving slab.

The proposed MUGA (multi-use games area) has now been removed as part of the application’s resubmission.

The planning statement said Thurston Community College had been selected by the Department for Education to be part of its School Rebuilding Programme and design proposals are currently being progressed to consider the different options for the full redevelopment of the site.

Due to this, the MUGA would be proposed in an alternative location on the school site and a playing field had now been included in the application instead.

“The grassed area to the west of the carpark where the MUGA was previously proposed will now be used by the school as playing field for sports pitches, including use at evenings and weekends, and classified as educational use only,” it said.

Subject to the playing field and/or car park not being flood lit, Mid Suffolk District Council has no objection to the plans.

Thurston Parish Council said increasing the number of drop-off spaces to 15 had addressed its concerns and as such it was able to support the application moving forward.

Objection comments from residents expressed concern over the safety of the footpath/cycleway on the western side of Ixworth Road that the proposal would cause students and staff to use.

One comment requested the county council, which is the planning authority in this case, refuses the application as being premature, which would allow the car parking to be considered in the context of the wider development of the community college site and also development proposals along Ixworth Road ‘which have the potential to impact on highways and safety issues’.

The county council as highway authority has recommended that any permission granted for the proposal have various conditions attached, for example around electric vehicle charging points, construction management and that the access is completed before any other part of the development takes place.