Building plans for Caistor school

“Children who attend Caistor Grammar School deserve proper classrooms to be taught in.”
Caistor Grammar SchoolCaistor Grammar School
Caistor Grammar School

That is the view of the town’s MP, Sir Edward Leigh, who has written in support of plans currently with West Lindsey District Council to upgrade facilities.

The plans are for three temporary mobile classrooms on the school site to be demolished and for a three-classroom block to be built.

The proposed location for the new classroom block is on an existing area of hard standing near the North Kelsey Road entrance.

In his written letter of support, Sir Edward said: “This development has been a long time coming and it is clear from my recent visit to the school and the photos in the planning statement that it is not cost effective to maintain the mobile class rooms nor sustainable in the long term.”

The three ‘temporary’ buildings have been on site for 40 years and are typical of the single storey, modular timber frame building used extensively for education buildings at that time.

According to the planning statement attached to the application, due to the location of the existing hard standing, the floorplan and scale of the building ‘has been designed to sit within the boundary of the existing MUGA [multi-use games area] and be as low lying as possible’.

Sir Edward added: “ I fully support the planning application.

“I respectfully request officers approve this development without delay, this proposal will allow Caistor Grammar to flourish and continue to provide education to many in the district for years to come.”

Caistor Town Council raised no objections nor submitted any comments after the planning meeting last week.

However, during the meeting the correspondence from Historic England was highlighted, which shows concerns on heritage grounds.

The letter said: “The proposed site for new build educational facilities would physically avoid the Roman Town (partially designated as a Scheduled Monument) but has the potential to impact upon remains related to the post-Roman reworking of the settlement... as a castle and bailey / burgh.”

A ‘proper evaluation’ of the site was advised.

This was also the view of LCC archaeology section, who said the present application: ‘does not consider the potential archaeological impacts of the proposed development’, as the local area has produced a number of Roman finds, as well as ‘ important Anglo-Saxon material’.

○The full application can be found on the West Lindsey planning site: app no. 144085.