New primary school in Daventry could open in 2017

Daventry District Council examined the business case for a new school on Monksmoor at its strategy group meeting on Thursday April 14.

The report says that if the land is released by the developers, work could start on site in August, with the new school opening in September 2017.

Following the failure to get a school on Middlemore, where DDC earmarked land for a school but the county council decided not to build one, the district council is doing things differently on Monksmoor.

This time DDC will construct the school itself, using money provided by the estate’s developer Crest Nicholson. But that money will only be available after 300 new homes are built. With 140 homes being completed at the moment, the 300 figure is likely to be reached in 2018.

Rather than waiting for the cash to build the school, DDC is planning on funding the work itself to get it done earlier, and then getting the money back from the developer a year or two later.

As such the report to the councillors asks them to approve changes to the budget to include £5.038 million over the years to April 2018 to cover the costs.

To reduce the risks the council has turned to a school builder which uses a range of pre-designed buildings. One of their designs was used for the Oakfield Primary School in Rugby.

Monksmoor’s primary school will be built on land on the edge of the estate. It will overlook fields and the planned extension to Daventry Country Park.

The report highlights a potential risk to the project if the site is not released on time.

The school building will be constructed on a raised platform so that in the unlikely event there is a problem with the reservoir dam at the country park, the building should not be hit by and flood water.