Manchester councillors are moving to refuse a school for up to 120 children with special educational needs, against the advice of the council’s own highways officers. As Place North West reported, the committee resolved it was minded to refuse after a site visit.
The proposal
Binas Yisachar, a Jewish community organisation, applied to convert the vacant Chestnut House Care Home at 69 Crumpsall Lane, opposite Crumpsall Metrolink station, into a two-form entry primary school for up to 120 SEND pupils. Reference 143452/FO/2025.
The objection
Traffic. The application offered five staff car parking spaces and 14 covered cycle spaces, which members judged inadequate for drop-off, parking pressure and rush hour congestion on the lane.
Councillor Dave Rawson put it with visible discomfort: “I don’t doubt the value of the school and what it provides. But I think in this circumstance I would like to reluctantly move that we mind to refuse this application.”
Why this is genuinely difficult
The tension here is real and worth sitting with rather than picking a side quickly.
The case for approval: England has a severe shortage of SEND places. Councils are spending enormous sums transporting children long distances to out-of-area provision because there is nothing local, and those journeys are miserable for the children and ruinous for council budgets. A vacant care home converting to 120 SEND places, directly opposite a Metrolink stop, is close to an ideal site on paper. The council’s own highways officers recommended approval.
The case for refusal: SEND schools generate an unusual traffic pattern. A large proportion of pupils arrive by taxi or minibus rather than walking, precisely because they travel further and have mobility needs. Proximity to a tram stop matters much less than it would for a mainstream school. Five parking spaces and a residential lane is a legitimate thing for members who visited the site to worry about.
The bit that should not be lost
Members overruling their own professional officers is not improper. Councillors are the decision makers and officers advise. But when it happens, the reasons need to be strong enough to survive appeal, and a refusal on highways grounds where the highways authority recommended approval is not an easy position to defend at appeal.
The more constructive outcome would be a revised travel plan: managed drop-off arrangements, staggered timings, a servicing strategy. The application returns to a future committee for a final verdict, so there is time.
What would be a poor outcome for Manchester is 120 SEND places lost over a parking layout, when the children concerned are currently being driven somewhere further away.
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