Case study: Bishop's Stortford Schools

There will be a shortage of secondary school places in Bishop's Stortford to meet the growing demand for housing. The Bishop’s Stortford High School and The Herts and Essex High School are two successful single sex foundation schools with no ability to expand on their existing sites to meet this demand.

The Schools were offered two new adjacent sites in the green belt which gave them the opportunity to dispose of their existing sites and capitalise on the value in order to fund the substantial part of rebuilding and expanding the schools. The adjacent sites also give them the opportunity and the chance to work collaboratively whilst continuing as two separate schools.

Clarson Goff was appointed to carry out Feasibility Studies and ongoing Project Management for the relocation of the two schools.

Our commission includes the development of the Business Case, the presentation of evidence to the District Council Local Plan Public Inquiry and negotiations with developers and landowners for both the proposed and existing sites.

We are responsible for the procurement of design teams and specialists to obtain Outline Planning Permission for the Green Belt sites, and continued liaison with both the landowners and preferred developer for the remainder of the green belt site and the future mixed use development.