Plans to bulldoze Crewe baths expected to be given the green light by council

The plan to use the land for a school catering for excluded children comes after a U-turn on plans to open a community hub and cinema in the old swimming baths building

Cheshire East Council is expected to press ahead with plans which would see the former Flag Lane Baths bulldozed to make way for an alternative provision school.

The initial proposal by the Always Ahead charity to transform the Crewe building into a community hub was abandoned earlier this year.

At this month’s meeting of the children and families committee, councillors will be asked to support plans to use the site as a new free alternative provision school.

This would cater mainly for pupils who have been excluded from school.

Councillors will also be asked to approve the inclusion of £500,000 in the children and families capital programme to indemnity up to that amount to any free school ‘abnormal site development’ costs.

A report to the committee states: “Cheshire East has one registered alternative provision setting delivering time-limited intensive placements for secondary age pupils, in Macclesfield.

“This intervention reduces the risk of children and young people being permanently excluded.”

In March of this year, the Department for Education (DfE) confirmed that the Youth Engagement Schools (YES) Trust had been successful in bidding for a new free alternative provision school which would provide for up to 70 places.

The school, which will be named the Engage Academy, will be funded and delivered by the DfE.

The report states: “The Engage Academy will work with schools throughout Cheshire East and provide commissioned preventative placements to support pre-exclusion.”

It continues: “It was initially intended that the new school would be co-located on the site of an existing secondary school in Crewe, but further investigations have established that this is not a viable option.”

Flag Lane Baths is a council-owned property which has been vacant since 2016 when the Lifestyle Centre opened.

The report adds: “The DfE has indicated a preference for a cleared site to allow for the construction of a new-build school, rather than the adaptation of the existing buildings.

“The Department is mindful of the ‘locally listed’ status of the eastern façade of the former baths, and officers would seek that this is retained as part of a new development, alongside seeking some form of community facility.”

The children and families committee meeting takes place at 2pm on Monday, November 11 at the council’s Westfields offices in Sandbach.

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