A new Crewe school facing a delayed opening after a developer went into administration may never be built if fresh plans are submitted for the proposed site, a councillor fears.

The 210-place primary school is included in phase one of the two-phase 815 homes development planned for Basford East, Shavington. and was due to open in September 2025.

Cheshire East now expects that to be delayed until 2026 because Lane End Developments Construction Ltd, which was to build phase one, went into administration in April.

Cllr George Hayes, Congleton West, Conservative (Cheshire East Council).

At Monday's (December 11) meeting of the children and families committee, Congleton councillor George Hayes (Conservative), said: "If a new developer comes in, my understanding is they have the opportunity, if they so wish, to submit new plans for the site potentially, relating to the future viability of that site.

"I think I'm correct in presuming that wouldn't necessarily have to include a primary school."

Cheshire East approved an £8m budget for the new primary school in the MTFS (budget) 2023/24 at its full council meeting in February.

And £1.568m was to come from the phase one developer towards the new school build in the form of S106 contributions, with phase two making a contribution of £960,000.

The phase two scheme, which is under a different developer, is still going ahead.

Cheshire East now expects the development to be delayed until 2026 because Lane End Developments Construction Ltd, which was to build phase one, went into administration in April (Onward Homes).

Cllr Hayes also wanted to know if the council had already spent any money on the proposed school.

"Given where we thought we were at, I anticipate that some funding will already have been spent on pre-construction work and tendering for a contractor etc," he said.

Poynton councillor Jos Saunders (Conservative), said if the houses are built in phase two without the school then children might have to be transported elsewhere, at a cost to the council.

"I know there's no impact for [home to school] transport costs for phase one because the houses haven't been built, but this [phase two] development is going ahead and there are a considerable amount of houses," she said.

"I'd like to know what the impact would be on the transport budget then."

Cllr Jos Saunders, Poynton East & Pott Shrigley, Conservative (Cheshire East Council).

Audlem councillor Rachel Bailey (Conservative), raised concerns the developer went into administration in April but the report regarding the impact on the new school didn't come before committee until December.

Director of education, Claire Williamson, said she would send written responses to councillors regarding any possible impact on home to school transport and the planning-related questions and would also give an update at a future meeting of the committee.

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