PLANS have been submitted for a new 160 place Special Educational Needs (SEN) school off Bower Lane near Bridgwater Community Hospital.

The application submitted this week also includes plans for 38 new homes as well a new access road off Bower Lane.

Over the next 15 years demand for special school places is expected to rise as housing developments are delivered and the population increases.

At present Penrose and Elmwood School are both full, meaning children with complex special educational needs are not being educated in their community.

This means the children need to transported to other parts of Somerset of neighbouring counties at significant financial and environmental cost.

A spokesman for AWW, who submitted the application on behalf of Somerset County Council, said: “Elmwood’s current building, although relatively modern, was not designed to accommodate the needs of the county’s most complex children.

“This new building has been designed specifically to not only meet those most complex needs, but offer additional therapeutic facilities which will enable school staff to address children’s physical and sensory requirements.

Feasibility studies were undertaken at both Penrose and Elmwood in order to understand the cost and deliverability of expanding both schools but neither were deemed to be cost effective due to site constraints and other factors.

An SCC spokesman said: “Moreover, Bridgwater will need a significant number of additional secondary school place. On that basis the most cost-effective option was deemed to be the delivery of a new replacement special school, with the current accommodation at Robert Blake Science College and Chilton Trinity School being converted into mainstream school places.”

The new all-age school will include classrooms, a dining hall, sports hall, sensory and therapy rooms, staff rooms, warm water pool, space for administration and medical staff, meeting rooms, sensory garden, MUGA and adventure playground.

The development will be served by an upgraded Bower Lane that will become the first part of the estate road to serve the wider East Bridgwater residential allocation of approximately 1,350 dwellings.