Warning of 70-vehicle tailbacks prompts rethink of Archbishop Temple High School extension

Plans to extend a Preston secondary school have been redesigned after highways chiefs warned they could cause traffic chaos in an area with a history of accidents.

Archbishop Temple Church of England High School, in Fulwood, applied for permission to build a new two-storey block just over a year ago. The extra teaching space is needed to accommodate a phased, five-year increase in pupil numbers from 790 to 1,065 - an expansion that is already under way.

However, Preston City Council has yet to reach a decision over the proposal amid concerns from Lancashire County Council about the potential impact of the scheme on the highway network around the St Vincents Road facility.

The school’s governors have now submitted a revised blueprint that includes dozens of additional parking spaces, an off-street bus waiting area and a new access point for students arriving on foot.

The measures are in response to an excoriating assessment by the county council of the original application. The highways authority said the proposal had failed to demonstrate it would not have a “severe” knock-on effect on already congested roads in the suburban area - and had sought to “downplay” modelling that suggested it would.

In April, the county council lodged a nine-page litany of objections to the project. The document noted that St Vincents Road already experiences “high traffic volumes” during morning and afternoon peak periods when students, staff and buses from Archbishop Temple, Corpus Christi Catholic High School, on the opposite side of the road, and the nearby Preston College all “arrive and depart within a short timeframe”.

County Hall said any expansion of Archbishop Temple must come with “mitigation[s]...to ensure highway safety and sustainable access that reduces reliance on private car travel” - which the applicant had “failed to provide”.

The objection letter highlighted modelling showing that the junction of St Vincents Road and Garstang Road was already operating “over theoretical capacity” during the morning rush hour, with around 25 queuing vehicles and delays of more than four minutes.

Even without the school expansion, that situation is expected to deteriorate by 2031, with queuing time set to double. But with the additional traffic generated by the extra pupils, the county council said waits would treble to over 12 minutes as a result of up to 74 vehicles tailing back at any one time.

The proposed development would also push the junction over capacity during the afternoon peak, although delays would be far less, at 80 seconds.

The county council also pointed to there having been 10 recorded collisions in the locality over the past five years - three at the St Vincents Road junction with Garstang Road, three at its junction with Sharoe Green Lane and four along St Vincents Road itself.

“Alarmingly, eight out of the 10 collisions involved a vehicle striking either a pedestrian or a cyclist - some of [whom] were children - indicating a clear pattern of vulnerability for non-motorised users in the area,” the authority’s letter said.

It also recommended replacing a proposed zebra crossing on St Vincents Road with a traffic light, push-button’ puffin’ facility instead.

In a document setting out how they intended to make the scheme acceptable to the highways authority, DBE Services, acting as technical representatives for the school and the Diocese of Blackburn, and Hive Projects, the project managers, accepted the crossing recommendation.

They also put forward plans for a five-capacity bus drop-off and pick-up zone within the school grounds. There is currently space only for one of the present four dedicated buses that serves the school to park on site.

The move will “help reduce congestion and make it safer for all road users”, the proposal stated, adding that 300 pupils will be taken off the surrounding pavements as a result. It is intended that the buses will pull into the site at designated times in the morning and afternoon and remain in place “until all students have disembarked or embarked at the beginning and end of each day, respectively, so the vehicles can leave in the safest manner possible”.

Meanwhile, the school is proposing to add an extra 64 on-site parking spaces, taking the total to 157. That will be achieved by "optimising" existing parking areas and creating entirely new facilities - and amounts to 57 more spaces than required by the highways authority’s own design standard, which the project team says it is exceeding “given the issues on St Vincents Road”.

The fresh blueprint says the layout will ensure “the free flow of traffic in and out of the site” and will enable 35 spaces to be reserved for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) via a permit system.

In another change to the original proposal, a gate will be installed to link to a public right of way at the rear of the school site, to provide pupils arriving on foot from the south with a more direct access point. It will also enable parents and carers to drop pupils off in other locations from where they can join the path.

A consultation is now being carried out into reworked plans. Anybody wishing to respond should search for application reference 06/2025/0759 at preston.gov.uk/planningservices

Fifty-five additional pupils are being admitted under the expansion every year from 2024/25 until 2028/29, meaning 110 of them are already attending the school.

As well as the proposed new block - which will feature English and IT classrooms, a library and performing arts space - the school also has a yet-to-be-determined planning application lodged for a two-storey temporary modular classroom and a temporary toilet cabin, for use while the permanent additional facilities are constructed.