'Senseless' parking plans put the brakes on proposed city school

...while expansion of another will be decided by government

- by Paul Faulkner

Councillors have sent education bosses back to the drawing board after telling them that the parking arrangements for a planned new primary school on the outskirts of Preston are devoid of "common sense".

Lancashire County Council's development control committee had been asked to grant permission for the long-proposed facility on the former Whittingham Hospital site, off Whittingham Lane.

However, members condemned the design of a drop-off/pickup point outside the school gates and a coach turning area where the vehicles would be required to reverse - branding them both a potential danger.

The education arm of the authority will now have to rethink those elements of its blueprint for the 420-pupil school, which includes a 16-place special needs unit and is due to open in September 2027.

As the Lancashire Post revealed last month, temporary buildings are to be erected on the site so that 60 reception-aged children can be accommodated 12 months sooner than that - during the 2026/27 academic year - after delivery of the permanent school was delayed.

Now the project has hit a further bump in the road after the cross-party committee excoriated the traffic management plans for the site on Henry Littler Way, the new road that will eventually run right through the huge housing estate being built on the wider onetime hospital plot.