Acting on behalf of Bowmer and Kirkland, DPP have secured a resolution to grant planning permission for a new secondary school in Grays, Thurrock.
Thames Park School will provide a modern teaching facility for up to 900 pupils as part of the Osborne Co-operative Academy Trust, focusing on delivering digital learning and Artificial Intelligence for the pupils with ICT fully integrated into the curriculum and the building itself. The school will deliver urgently needed secondary school places in Thurrock and will provide a permanent site for the pupils already studying at Thames Park in temporary accommodation in central Grays.
DPP successfully demonstrated a balanced planning case in support of the school development, despite being located within the Green Belt, demonstrating that Very Special Circumstances are triggered by the urgent need for school places and the lack of alternative sequentially preferable sites in the borough.
The school is one of the first projects for which DPP have secured consent under the Department for Educations’ MMC1 (Modern Methods of Construction 1) Framework, with a number of future schools due to be delivered under the framework in the coming years across the UK.
Speaking about the consent, Director Bob Robinson said:
It was rewarding to deliver consent for yet another school for Bowmer and Kirkland and it represents a further example of great teamworking with B&K and their core Consultant team. This is the first of many MMC schemes we hope to deliver and is made all the more satisfying given the challenges of this site.
Chris Allen, Bowmer & Kirkland Project Lead for Thames Park said:
We are delighted in gaining planning approval on Thames Park which DPP have excelled at achieving, helping B&K to deliver much needed secondary education places within Thurrock on behalf of the Department for Education. DPP remain part of our core consultant team and we look forward to building on our long lasting relationship with future projects.
Image: Stride Treglown
