A FORMER secondary school will be brought back into educational use for the benefit of children with special needs following a council vote yesterday (Tuesday, June 17).

The former Greencroft Business and Enterprise Community College premises, in Greencroft, near Stanley, has stood empty since the North Durham Academy, which replaced Greencroft and Stanley School of Technology three years ago, moved into new £30m purpose-built facilities on Stanley’s King’s Head playing fields site last summer.

On Tuesday, Durham County Council backed proposals for Hare Law Special School, currently based in Catchgate, to take over the Blackett Street plot, with members of the council’s county planning committee giving their unanimous support to the switch.

Hare Law’s current site suffers from overcrowding and has been deemed unsuitable for the future.

The Greencroft campus, meanwhile, includes several blocks of one to three storeys in height, some of which date back to the 1970s and are in a poor condition.

The council wants to demolish a multi-storey structure on the western edge of the site, which makes up around half the school, and remodel and refurbish the remaining building, both inside and outside.

This would reduce the school to a size more appropriate for its future use – around 2,500sq metres of space in the main building, plus an 850sq-metre sports hall.

Money has been made available by the Department for Education and it is hoped the £2.7m project will be completed next year.

Harelaw currently has 135 pupils aged five to 19 with learning difficulties and autism.

In her report for Tuesday’s committee meeting, senior planning officer Ann Rawlinson said the proposals would effectively re-use a developed site – enhancing its setting, improve the choice of school places for children with special educational needs and was acceptable in terms of highway safety, access, parking and traffic.

She recommended planning permission be granted.

Aware the item was the last on the agenda, Councillor Bill Moir said it was a happy end to the committee’s deliberations and he took great pleasure in moving it be approved.

Cllr Nigel Martin questioned a condition requiring that the site’s multi-use games areas not be used after 6pm, suggesting 9pm was a more suitable cut-off time.

The committee accepted this and unanimously backed the proposals.

Earlier this year, Hare Law headteacher Maggie Collins said the school was very excited about the move, which would create new opportunities to engage with the wider community, and pupils have been involved in choosing a name and designing a uniform.