New school approved after cost-cutting changes

The school will be built next to the Prestley Wood Academy, for children with special educational needs and disabilities, which opened last year

A new secondary school will be built after cost-cutting changes were made to its designs.

The school will be built at the Alconbury Weald Education Campus, near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, with space for 600 pupils.

Instead of being built in the originally proposed "H" shape, the main teaching block will be a "T" shape.

The school is being built to serve the new development in Alconbury which will turn a former airfield into about 6,500 new homes.

The main teaching block is due be two or three storeys, with a separate single-storey sports block

In planning documents, Cambridgeshire County Council and developer Morgan Sindall said the changes "introduced improvements to the design of the scheme".

The plans, which have been approved by the council's planning committee, said it was a "more efficient use of area and improves pupil and staff circulation between the school facilities".

It could also allow for an expansion to create an enclosed external courtyard space. If expanded, the school could double its pupil capacity to 1,200, said the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Last year, the council proposed not installing a sprinkler system in the new school as construction costs had "significantly" exceeded the £37m project budget.

It was thought a sprinkler system could cost between £850,000 and £900,000, although it was later suggested this figure may have been "on the high side".

The report said a risk assessment found it was acceptable not to include sprinklers, with other fire protection features proposed.

At the time, some councillors disputed the proposals not top have sprinklers.

The final plans for the school include a sprinkler tank – a tank that typically provides the water for a sprinkler system.