Homebuilders to fund Hereford school extension

An extension to a Hereford school can now go ahead after it secured over £700,000 from housing developers in the county.

Holmer CE Academy wants to extend upwards and outwards the currently single-storey Williams Building to the rear of the main school building on Holmer Road.

The work to create two new classrooms was given planning permission by Herefordshire Council back in June but did not yet have funding.

Now the council has confirmed a total of £705,420.15 from two large housing developments will fund the work, under so-called section 106 agreements under which developers agree to fund wider infrastructure in exchange for planning permission.

The two schemes, in this case, are Taylor Wimpey’s of around 95 homes on Canon Pyon Road immediately northwest of the city, and Marsten Developments’ completed 76-home Porthouse Rise development north of Bromyard.

But the work at the Holmer school does not use all the section 106 money from the two schemes, the remainder of which will go on improvements at Whitecross High School which are “in planning and design stages”, the council said.

Nor does it fully fund the expected total project cost of nearly £775,000, meaning the school will have to contribute the difference of nearly £70,000.