PLANS to create an electric substation which will serve a new school in Ellesmere Port have been lodged with Cheshire West and Chester Council.

The proposal, which was submitted to the planning department at the end of September by developer Redrow, is the latest step in the process to create a new primary school on land adjacent to Ledsham Road in Little Sutton.

The Cheshire West and Chester Council Local Plan deemed the area to be in need of the new school as a result of Redrow's Ledsham Garden Village development which will see 2,000 new homes created.

Council projections indicated that the new homes would mean approximately 368 children aged between four and 11 years old would require school places in the local area.

A public consultation on the new school was carried out between November and December 2023.

Feedback from residents was split between concerns that the new school could negatively impact on existing schools pupil numbers, that existing schools could accommodate the additional children and that the new school was necessary and would ease current school traffic in the area.

Other key themes included that money should be spent on improving existing school buildings and that the area needs additional community and sport provisions.

The new school is intended to be mixed gender with 210 places, with the intention for a further 105 places expansion as the housing development progresses.

The proposal included a new catchment area will see the school serve the new development only, however existing catchment areas for Little Sutton Primary and Capenhurst Primary will become shared catchment areas for the new school, a point which some residents disagreed with.

The new school is expected to be ready to open by September 2026 at the earliest.