Plans submitted - new sports facilities and improved parking arrangements
Following public consultation, St Peter’s School has submitted a planning application for new all-weather sports facilities and improved parking arrangements at the southern end of the school site, accessed from Westminster Road.
The sports facilities would include new hockey pitches, tennis and netball courts, cricket nets and storage areas. As well as providing improved facilities for the school, this scheme will strengthen partnerships with local and national sports groups and increase participation in sport across York where there is a recognised shortfall of all-weather surfaces.
Access will be from an improved entrance off Westminster Road and the proposals include a new parking area with dedicated coach parking, visitor parking and parent drop-off areas. This will help ease current traffic issues, relieving congestion on local roads. A new emergency access will be created to ensure emergency vehicles can always access the school. A programme of landscaping is also included to aid biodiversity on the site.
Following public consultation, the highways plans were updated to include a new pedestrian crossing at the proposed site entrance, allowing users of the existing public rights of way to cross safely. Additionally, following further surveys the plans were amended to widen Westminster Road to improve vehicle circulation and reduce potential congestion, as well as improve access to and from the site. This allows better access for buses and ensures two cars can comfortably pass each other between The Avenue and the proposed entrance on Westminster Road.
You can view the plans by visiting City of York Council’s planning portal and searching: 22/02288/FUL.
You can learn more about the submitted proposals here.
Have Your Say
You can still provide feedback about the plans by completing our online survey. You can also feedback by contacting our project communications and consultation team: on 0800 089 0362 or by emailing [email protected]
Timescale and next steps
- Public consultation – September 2022
- Planning submission – November 2022
- Planning decision (expected) – Spring 2023
- Construction to start – Easter 2023 (estimated)
- Sports pitches and car park to be open Autumn 2023 (estimated)
All timescales are subject to change.
The proposed development site is accessed from Westminster Road, is currently used as a sports field and is adjacent to St Peter’s 8-13 school buildings and the school swimming pool. The development site is bounded by fields and the school building and is not visible from the public highway.
We are proud of our sporting tradition, and we aim to promote a healthy and active lifestyle for the enjoyment and wellbeing of all, from enthusiastic beginners to top athletes.
Our current sports facilities include a range of multi-surface pitches, an indoor swimming pool, a boathouse, as well as netball and tennis courts. However with ever-increasing demand for modern fit-for-use facilities, we have identified a need for new all-weather sports facilities.
St Peter’s has strong relationships with local sports groups. We are keen that as many people as possible across York can access and benefit from our facilities.
St Peter’s is proud to be part of the wider York community and we continue to look for opportunities to strengthen those links. We offer Help With Fees to encourage any children with talents to apply for a place at school with means-testing allowing up to 100% of fees to be covered.
We partner with the York Independent State School Partnership, allowing children from other schools to learn Latin, Astronomy and others. We host and organise events with York University, York Literature Festival, York Festival of Ideas, and the Institute of Physics, for example our popular stargazing event.
We actively support and fundraise for local charities including York Foodbank and S.N.A.P.P.Y, and our pupils regularly visit local care homes and hospices. We look after our environment alongside Terracycle and St Nick’s, with our own Green-Flag awarded Eco Club leading the way.
Our proposed solutions
We have identified several key solutions to help ease traffic and access issues to the school site. We believe these measures, including a new car park with emergency vehicles access, a coach drop-off area, a parent drop-off and a pick-up area and overall increased capacity, will help to ease traffic and congestion locally.
What is proposed?
- A new 67-space car park which would be accessed via Westminster Road
- The car park would include four accessible spaces, and six electric vehicle charging spaces
- The car park would include a bus layby and student drop-off and pick-up point. At times when this space is unused, it could accommodate seven coaches at one time and 20 further car parking spaces
- These proposals have been sensitively designed to retain trees where possible and provide extensive landscaping across the developed site
Key benefits of increased parking provision
- Reducing queuing on public highways – a priority operating system is proposed at the entrance to the site (from Westminster Road). This would grant priority to traffic entering the school to reduce queues forming on the public highway. Queuing to leave the site would take place in the school grounds, and our modelling shows this will be minimal during peak times
- Emergency vehicle access – a dedicated emergency vehicle access route is proposed which travels along the main school building. This would ensure emergency vehicles can always access the site
- Increased coach drop-off capacity – dedicated space for seven coaches (with wider car parking space optional at less busy times) which resolves current issue of coaches departing the school grounds and returning for pick-up
- More space for parents at drop-off and pick-up – The increased parking capacity and dedicated drop-off area will ensure more parents can access the school grounds rather than using the public highway
Our proposals are designed to improve our sports provision for the school and widen opportunity for greater community use. They will also help address existing parking and access issues to the school site.
New sports facilities
This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fully utilise the school’s site and provide high-quality sports provision for use by the school and the wider community. The proposals include hockey pitches, tennis courts, cricket nets and store areas.
St Peter’s School has a strong relationship with community sports groups including York Sports Club and York Hockey Club. This proposal will allow us to provide modern and maintained sports provision and increased capacity for these and other local sports groups to use.
The proposed and existing all-weather pitch, along with the new tennis and netball courts are designed with modern LED sports lighting to enable play into the evening for both the school and the community. Hours of use will be restricted until 10.00pm on Mondays-Saturdays and 9.00pm on Sundays. The lighting has been designed to ensure light spillage does not impact nearby residential properties or highways.
Landscaping
The scheme includes provision of landscape proposals including:
- Native and ornamental tree and shrub planting across the proposed site.
- Areas of wildflower meadow and amenity grass.
- Retention of existing trees, including the mature Horse Chestnut to the site entrance; the design proposals have taken care to ensure this tree can be retained and form an integral part of the landscape treatment.
- The principles of sustainable design have been embraced to reduce the areas of hard surfacing and maximise the green space.
- Opportunities to enhance biodiversity also form a key part of the proposals, these include the use of native plant species and new wildflower meadow; the latter to reduce areas of amenity grass.
