Back to drawing board for new Wolverhampton school designs
New plans have been drawn up for the multi-million pound revamp of a Wolverhampton school after it was branded 'appalling' and likened to a prison cell by councillors.
Heath Park Academy, in Prestwood Road, Heath Town, is getting refurbished under the £270 million Building Schools for the Future scheme, which will see every secondary school in the city rebuilt or refurbished.
Under the proposals pupil numbers would swell from 1,180 to 1,300. The project went before Wolverhampton City Council's planning committee, where members were urged to grant permission as the scheme had already been hit by delays.
But instead they criticised the designs and said they were not good enough.
Fears were raised that the plans, which feature a mix of metal cladding and brickwork, look 'bland'.
Now the council has revealed that revised designs will go before the planning committee on July 30.
Metal cladding has been replaced with rendering and a rotunda has been fitted above the main entrance.
A design statement by ACP architects says: "We believe the changes, when taken as a whole, greatly improve the appearance of the school frontage.
"The new collegiate-like appearance of Heath Park is one they can be proud of and which reflects the success and achievements of their school and enhances the community within which it serves."
Residents will get an opportunity to have a look at the proposals before the meeting.
Graham Warrender, aged 66, a retired Sankey's foreman, who lives on Hazelwood Drive, said despite the rethink, campaigners' original concerns about traffic and increased noise in the evening had not been addressed.
He added: "They are trying to make it look a bit more desirable but it is still in the wrong place and it will completely overshadow homes and create traffic problems.
"It will dominate the landscape and it will be obtrusive."
He said that residents would attend the next committee meeting to raise their fears.
At the planning committee meeting last month Councillor Malcolm Gwinnett said: "The design for the front of the building looks like Prisoner Cell Block H. We could have done far, far better than this." And Councillor Wendy Thompson added: "I think it is aesthetically one of the most displeasing buildings to ever come before the planning committee."
To make way for the development, about 80 per cent of the buildings, dating from the late Victorian and Edwardian period at the corner of Prestwood Road and Coronation Road would go.
