'Investing in the future' - Plans for to relocate Oldbury primary school into new £20m building approved
Plans to relocate an Oldbury school into a new £20m building have been approved by councillors.
Sandwell Council will build the new Causeway Green Primary School as part of the huge Brandhall Village development in Oldbury which includes 190 new homes and a 67-acre public park.
The proposed new 420-pupil ‘net zero’ school, which would be built on the former Brandhall golf course, would replace the ‘structurally failing’ Causeway Green Primary in nearby Penncricket Lane which is in “extremely poor condition” and regularly flooded.
The plans were backed by the Black Country authority’s Labour cabinet at a meeting last Wednesday (January 14).
At the meeting, Cllr Peter Hughes, cabinet member for regeneration and infrastructure, said that children at Causeway Green would be going from “one of the poorest schools in the borough” to “something that was space age.”
The 70-year-old Oldbury school is “in the worst condition within the maintained school estate” and “beyond [its] economic life” due to the corrosion of steel frames, the cabinet report said, and its structural integrity was “failing.”
Cllr Mohammed Jalal Uddin, cabinet member for children and families, said the £20m work was “Sandwell Council investing in the future.”
“The new school would be leading edge and based on what are known as Passivhaus principles meaning that it is energy-efficient, cost-effective and supports our objective of being carbon neutral,” he said.
“The re-build and re-location is by far the most viable option for the school and the community it serves.”
Cllr Uddin added the council was looking into whether the current school in Penncricket Lane could be re-used once empty.
Cllr Harnoor Bhullar, cabinet member for education, said the new school would create a “positive impact for children” and “ensure the current poor building environment was replaced, and
The new school would be built on the former golf course near the corner of Grafton Road and Ferndale Road.
The latest plans say work would start on the new school this autumn and would be finished by early 2028.
A cabinet report from November 2024 detailing funding for Brandhall Village said the new school was expected to open in early 2027.
Sandwell Council said building a new school on a different site would be the “most cost-effective solution.”
The local authority ruled out building a new school on the existing site saying it would cost up to £5 million more.
Building a new school to a Passivhaus standard would cost £1m more than a ‘traditional’ design, the council said, but the associated lower running costs would eventually save the authority money.
The council said the school had been designed with greener features which includes using insulation, windows and ventilation to hugely reduce the building’s energy demands and carbon footprint.
The local authority originally looked to build 550 homes on the former Brandhall golf course but slashed its plans by two-thirds after a backlash from campaigners.
A planning application to build 190 homes on the land was approved in 2023 despite receiving more than 200 objections including those from the Brandhall Green Space Action Group, which was formed to fight off the threat of building on the land.
