On behalf of Tilbury Douglas Construction and the Department for Education, Iceni Projects’ Manchester Office managed the planning application and public consultation process concerning the redevelopment of Longton Lane Primary School, located in Rainhill, St Helen’s.

The scheme is one of the many schools in the region benefitting from the Government’s ‘school rebuilding programme’, which carries out major rebuilding and refurbishment projects at school and sixth-form college buildings across England, with buildings prioritised according to their condition.

In this case, the existing school buildings were coming to the end of their lifespans, did not meet the operational needs of the school and were not efficient for the number of current pupils. Therefore, it was proposed to demolish both existing buildings and build a new consolidated school building on the site, providing a much higher quality learning environment for the pupils and staff. The existing school buildings will remain in situ whilst the new school building is constructed. Only once pupils have begun using the new school building will the current buildings be demolished.

The new school building will be set across two storeys. The younger pupils’ classrooms will be at ground floor level, with direct access to the external play areas. The older pupils’ classrooms will be on the first floor. Surrounding the main building, there will be hard play areas, a trim trail, nature area and covered seating area for outdoor play and learning.

Iceni’s Manchester team managed the project on a day to day basis and were able to lean on the support of the internal Impact Management team, to prepare and submit an EIA screening request.

Iceni managed the technical team to efficiently navigate complex planning issues including an objection from Sport England and comments from the Urban Design Team at St Helen’s Council. The team submitted the application in spring 2023 and were able to successfully co-operate with the council’s technical consultees, to overcome all technical matters and achieve planning permission by August the same year. The application was warmly received at planning committee by members and the resolution to grant was unanimous.