THE APPROVAL of a planning application for a Special Educational Needs and Disabilities School (SEND) school on the outskirts of Bodmin has been celebrated by the local Cornwall Councillor for the area.

Cllr Leigh Frost, Cornwall Council member for Bodmin St Petrocs announced that the school, set to be known as Bosvena SEND School will be constructed on land at Turfdown Road on the outskirts of Bodmin and is set to provide specialist educational facilities for children with additional educational needs.

The planning application was for: the "Construction of a two-storey Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND) school (use class F), provision of hard and soft landscaping, a Multi Use Games Area (MUGA), sports facilities, new means of access and car parking, under planning application PA22/09909."

It is set to cater for 65 pupils aged between four and 16 years old and will employ approximately 30 members of staff.

In a statement, Cllr Frost said: "I spent this morning at the East Planning Committee to speak in support of a new school for special educational needs and disabilities to be built in Bodmin.

"The school will provide 65 places to the highest-priority SEND children in Cornwall. There is currently no public facility of this nature in Cornwall, so it is very welcome that the committee unanimously supported the proposals. I have supported this scheme from the very beginning, when the then Lib Dem administration invested £2 million to ensure Cornwall got this much-needed school, with the rest of the funding coming from the Department for Education.

"Now planning has been approved. I am looking forward to seeing the building developed."

Bodmin Town Council had also supported the application after initially objecting, but after receiving new information the Chair of its planning committee proposed to rescind the original motion to not support the application, a proposal which was carried by a majority verdict with an objection sustained by Cllr Jeremy Cooper.

Neighbouring Cardinham Parish Council raised objections stating that the facility would add to the current congestion and parking on the highway associated with the crematorium opposite, leading to an "unacceptable highway safety condition."

In a report for Cornwall Council's planning committee prior to the meeting which confirmed the awarding of planning permission, Cornwall Council's planning team had suggested a number of conditions including a scheme of works to deliver multi-modal site access onto Turfdown Road with a continuous pedestrian and cycle provision, the development of a travel plan, presenting of a landscape and ecology plan, a biodiversity plan, plans for surface water drainage being approved by Cornwall Council's planners and a number of other conditions related to amendments to the plans.