Green light for university technical college

Planning permission has been granted for a new university technical college (UTC) on the site of a former council office building in South Yorkshire.DLP Planning, on behalf of the Department for Education, submitted a full planning application earlier this year for development of a site north of College Road in Doncaster.The application was approved at a meeting of the council’s planning committee earlier this week (17 September 2019).The Doncaster UTC will be a state-funded 750 place school for students aged between 13 and 19. It will specialise in advanced engineering and digital design.The development will comprise a five-storey teaching block and three-and-a-half-storey sports hall, with dining below, and a four-storey lecture theatre with a roof terrace. A multi-use games area (MUGA) is also planned for the western corner of the site.The application site was formerly occupied by a 12-storey Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council (DMBC) office building, which was demolished in 2014.Willmott Dixon is the main contractor for the school building and FaulknerBrowns is the architect. The UTC will be part of the Brighter Futures Learning Partnership Trust (BFLPT) as well as part of the network of UTCs, the Baker Dearing Trust.Approval was granted in line with a planning officer’s recommendation, as previously reported by Insider.