Revealed: Plans for £2.4m Hereford city school extension

Details have been revealed of a £2.4-million scheme to extend a Hereford school.

The addition to Hampton Dene Primary School in the east of the city will house two new classrooms, along with support spaces such as toilets, staff and learning resource spaces, to accommodate 16 additional special education needs and disabilities (SEND) students.

This is according to planning application number 242911, submitted by Herefordshire Council to itself in November but only published this week.

“Due to the increase in numbers of learners and staff, the proposal is to also provide an extension to the existing car park area,” it said.

The council’s proposal also includes new landscaped learning and play areas which would be accessible through the new classrooms, plus sensory gardens and planters for outdoor learning and biodiversity improvements.

Extending the school’s detached language and communication centre (LCC) southeast towards Hampton Dene Road, the single-storey building will be of red brick with a part-pitched, part-flat roof.

Plans show it as roughly T-shaped, partly enclosing two fenced-off sensory gardens on either side.

The LCC already caters for children with speech, language and communication needs and autistic spectrum disorders (ASD), but is already at 50-percent over-capacity, the council said.

Its decision to make the investment, in September 2023, explained it has a statutory duty to accommodate pupils with a SEND education health and care plan (EHCP) in the county.

“The number of EHCPs for which the council are responsible for has been increasing over the past five years and this increase is expected to continue into the future,” it said, adding the highest need was to accommodate ASD pupils.

Herefordshire Council was asked when building work was likely to being and how long it would take.