Burnley College

Land and buildings off Ashfield Road and Land off Princess Way Burnley.

New further and higher education college in Burnley, Lancashire, with associated sports hall and sports fields. Designed by DLA Architecture.

This is an exciting opportunity to give Burnley an outstanding development, particularly when the site has a number of distinctive characteristics. The river, the viaduct and the sloping topography, for example, create a setting that is unique from many other development sites. We congratulate the architects who have worked hard to design a scheme within such limited timescales and with a range of site constraints. However, we believe the proposed scheme is ill-conceived and that a fundamental re-think for building a school on this site is required. We regret to say that we cannot support this planning application for the reasons set out below.   

The development represents a series of compromises, the main compromise being the absence of a masterplan or framework that sets a clear strategy for how the school can make the best use of the site and the land around. Whilst we understand that a town centre masterplan and a feasibility study have informed the location of the college on this site, there is no masterplan that shows the college in the context of other proposed developments for Burnley itself. We are therefore concerned that the fundamental principles for the design of the college have derived from an assessment of the constraints of the site and on the basis of the land currently available for redevelopment. Whilst many of the surrounding sites may not be currently available for redevelopment, there should be a masterplan in place to show how these sites can be best developed if/when they come forward.  We were encouraged to hear that the gas holder will be eventually removed from the land to the south of the main college building, but it is not evident that thought has been given for how this could be developed in the future. For example, could this site help with the capacity of the school and does the proposed design allow for extensions into this site in the future?  The lack of a strategy gives us no confidence that future growth will happen in anything other than an ill-conceived, piecemeal way. We recommend that before any further consideration is given to this scheme, efforts are focused on developing a masterplan for the site and the wider area. This masterplan should have a vision to help shape what happens on the site and therefore give the development a sense of identity and place, in the context of the surrounding area and the needs and priorities of the college. The following issues should be addressed when the scheme is being re-considered.

The design does not build on the positive characteristics of the site. For example, more could be made of the river, designing it into the scheme to create good quality amenity space. Furthermore, the change in levels across the site could be used to the school's advantage, eg by using the level of the land to separate out the departments. We recommend that early discussions are undertaken with the waterways authorities to look at a range of options for making a feature of the River Calder. It is essential that these options are fully explored and that negotiations do not stop at the first hurdle. 

The hierarchy of the building, routes and spaces is confused, making the school illegible and difficult to move around. There needs to be a better relationship between the entrances and exits to the site and the building itself. The main entrance may indeed front the principal road, Princes Way, but most people will arrive at the school from the car park or from Grosvenor Street or Royle Road; we think the position of the entrance should be reconsidered. A decision also needs to be taken as to which is the front and which is the back of the building. The main entrance fronts Princes Way in yet much of the activity and the sense arrival will come from within the site, over the River Calder.     

We are not convinced that the school will be able to accommodate the number of vehicles that will pass into and out of the site, particularly when the main vehicular access will be shared with the waste recycling facility to the north. We can see no evidence that pupils, staff and visitors will be encouraged to travel by public transport as opposed to the car. Where is the nearest bus stop, how can people access the site safely from this stop and the local train station and where can parents, coaches and school buses drop off and pick up pupils? It is essential that any masterplan is accompanied by a comprehensive traffic and movement study.

Further consideration also needs to be given to the proposed 'street' within the school. What is the purpose of this, where is it leading people from and to and why? It should be possible, when looking at a ground floor plan, to understand how staff, pupils and visitors enter, circulate and exit the site without the need for an explanation. How does a member of staff access the school for example, once they have parked in the car park? How will a visitor, driving north along Royle Road, know where to park their car and access the school?  It is essential that the development is designed in such a way that people can make their way around the site with ease, without the need for signage.

We think the approach to create a building of an unusual form, given that it will be highly visible from the viaduct and the land around, could be a positive one. However, we are concerned that the building form proposed does not create a successful building. Although there is a strong idea (splayed fingers along a central space), the corridors in the 'fingers' of the main college building are long, dark and narrow. There is no evidence that the rooms have been designed to be flexible so that that the size of the room can be altered depending on the activity within the room. We are also disappointed that the diagram is jeopardised by filling the space in-between with other uses. 

We understand that Burnley College will be moving out of a series listed buildings into this new development.  Any masterplan should be accompanied by a strategy that sets out clearly what is likely to happen to these buildings. The consequences of moving from one site to another needs to be carefully thought through. 

In conclusion, we think that, despite the best efforts of the design team, the proposed development represents a lost opportunity to help provide a successful college and regenerate this part of town. It appears that the scheme has been rushed through to satisfy funding requirements. It is important that the new school raises design standards, overcomes problems of the past and is designed to last into the future. We do not think this development achieves these objectives.