Upton-by-Chester High School replacement approved

The Department for Education’s proposal to construct a new secondary school off Long Lane was one of three projects to secure unanimous support from Cheshire West and Chester Council’s planning committee on Tuesday.

The other two projects were a five-storey self-storage building in Ellesmere Port from Mewbourne Properties and a carbon dioxide spur pipeline for Protos Resource Recovery Park.

Redevelopment of Upton-by-Chester High School

• Application reference number: 25/01483/FUL

Built primarily in the 1960s and 1970s, the current Upton-by-Chester High School has been ranked as one of the schools in the worst condition across the country, with multiple buildings labelled as requiring immediate remediation.

Its deteriorating structure made the educational campus a prime target for the Department for Education’s School Rebuilding Programme.

The new school, which garnered approval from Cheshire West and Chester councillors, will be 138,800 sq ft, U-shaped, and three-storeys tall. It will be built on the existing campus’s playing fields.

Once work by main contractor Kier is finished, the current school buildings will be demolished and turned into playing fields. It is estimated that construction will take nearly three years to complete.

Like its predecessor, the new building will be capable of accommodating the 1,845 students who currently study there, as well as the site’s 175 staff.

With sustainability in mind, the school would have a green roof with solar panels. The amount of parking spaces would remain the same, but there would be a large increase in areas for bicycles to be stored. Currently there are only 125 spaces. The plans would grow this number to 230.

AHR Architects designed the new school for the DfE. Avison Young is the project planner. The project team also includes The Environment Partnership, Apex Ecology, Amenity Tree, Miller Goodall, and MZA Acoustics. Flinders Chase is the transport consultant, 1st Horizon is the ground investigator, and Ridge is leading on sustainability.

Portside Self Storage was designed by CHQ Architects. Credit: via planning documents

Myrtle Street self-storage

• Application reference number: 24/03808/FUL

A snarky comment regarding the appearance of the self-storage building from Cllr Ben Walker did not deter councillors from supporting Mewbourne Properties’ application. In fact, Walker was the one who moved to approve it – despite stating that it was likely to incur a nickname from the locals given its brown, curved appearance.

The approved project includes demolishing the existing bungalow and commercial building on the site, which sits off Myrtle Street in Ellesmere Port, just a short distance away from Junction 8 of the M53.

The five-storey building will have a nearly 10,000 sq ft footprint, with a GEA of 52,300 sq ft.

CHQ Architects designed the rusted colour building, which is meant to evoke the image of a ship’s hull – a theme that continues in the facility’s Port Self Storage moniker.

The project team includes DLP Planning, Sustainable Development and Delivery, Strategic Planning and Research Unit, Cass Design Consultants, AEC, Geo Investigate, and Cundall.

Carbon dioxide spur pipeline for Protos

• Application reference number: 25/00952/FUL

HyNet is receiving a boost from this planning approval, which will connect the Protos Carbon Capture facilities towards its carbon storage site in the depleted gas fields of Liverpool Bay.

The proposal was developed by Liverpool Bay CSS with the help of WSP. Its above-ground facilities include connection points, pipeline inspection gauge launcher facilities, and walkover platforms – all of which will be built on the site of a temporary construction compound at the Ince Marshes site.