Plans to turn Houghton home into special educational needs school pulled after traffic concerns raised
Plans to convert a bungalow into a school for children with special educational needs have been withdrawn, following concerns from council highway safety chiefs.
Applicant Hexagon Care Services Ltd were seeking permission to convert the detached home into a school for up to 16 children with autism and other social, emotional and mental health needs.
Those behind the scheme said minimal alterations would be needed to convert the house in Black Boy Road into an independent school.
A planning statement submitted to council officials at the time added the school would employ 10 people, with children coming from the local area including those who “reside at children’s homes located in close proximity or living at home with parents”.
The company said it did not believe the site would negatively impact traffic in the area and that the school would cater for children with “special educational needs (SEN)”, including “social emotional mental health needs and autistic spectrum disorder”.
The planning statement added the school would have a “dedicated headteacher, supported by qualified teachers and teaching assistants” and that the school would be registered with the Department for Education and subject to Ofsted monitoring and assessment.
Planning documents noted that children would be transported to and from the school via a school transportation service vehicle (taxi / minibus), as well as parents of pupils residing at home transporting their children to the school.
The care company behind the plans added pupils would be “dropped off and collected within the application site” and that “employees will be encouraged to car share, cycle or use public transport utilising local transport links.”
During a council public consultation exercise on the planning application however, there were 15 objections.
A number of objections raised concerns about the development adding to existing traffic issues in the area in terms of increased journeys from staff and parents visiting the proposed school, as well as questions being raised about the suitability of the location, concerns about access and calls for the scheme to be redesigned.
One objector said: “Whilst I support the need for this type of facility, this is not an appropriate building or location for the development, and the building should remain in residential use.”
Another objector said the development would “cause congestion on the main road due to the poor access to the site”, and concerns were also raised about “increased noise and environmental pollution.”
A decision on the planning application was due to be made by the end of December, 2024.
However, the applicant submitted “supplementary information” to the council to provide “additional traffic management information including details of the anticipated number and times of vehicles entering and leaving the site at drop off and pick up times”.
According to the report, the information was prepared following highway safety concerns from the council’s ‘future transport’ department and Northumbria Police around school drop off/pick up issues at the site and wider traffic impacts in the area.
The supplementary information report said a “traffic management strategy will be strictly implemented outlining policies and procedures to ensure that pupils and employees arrive and leave the site safely, reduce site congestion of vehicles and ensure the local highway is not adversely affected during peak times.”
This included “set time windows for arrival and departure times for employees and pupils, ensuring the safety of site users and ensuring the site does not become congested during arrival and departure times”.
It was noted that “the type of transport suitable for each pupil will depend on their individual needs, commonly in the form of a dedicated school mini bus or shared taxi” and applicants maintained the proposals would not generate “high levels of new traffic.”
Further consultation responses from highways officers and police were published on Sunderland City Council’s planning portal website in January, 2025, and Northumbria Police withdrew its objection.
However, the council’s future transport team said the “proposed traffic management plan is unrealistic and based on assumptions and traffic could not be controlled, which is a significant highway safety concern”.
Council highways officers added that the school proposals would “over intensify the use of the site” and objected to the proposed change of use to “ensure that development has no unacceptable adverse impact on the local road network.”
According to Sunderland City Council’s planning portal website, the applicant officially withdrew the plans on January 16, 2025.
Any future change of use of the building to a school would require a separate planning application to be submitted to the council’s planning department.
For more information on the withdrawn school plans, visit Sunderland City Council’s planning portal website and search reference: 24/02188/FUL