A private school near Reading has won the right to increase pupil numbers and become mixed-sex despite traffic fears from neighbours.

Reading Blue Coat School is a private boys secondary school with a mixed-sex sixth form in Sonning.

The school has now been given approval to increase its capacity to more than 1,000 pupils and make the school entirely mixed-sex after a Wokingham Borough Council meeting yesterday (Wednesday, August 11). 

Bosses at the school applied to increase numbers from the 785 pupils currently enrolled to a full capacity of 1,100 students – an increase of 315 pupils.

Of these 785 current pupils, 260 are sixth formers of which 80 are girls.

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Until now, the school has been capped at 825. That means the school will be increasing its numbers by a third (33.3 per cent) or 40 per cent increase on current pupil numbers.

As well as the increase in pupils, the number of staff will increase from 155 which are currently there (including 65 support staff) to 217 (including 91 support staff), an increase of 62 staff.

Neighbours in Sonning raised serious fears over the amount of traffic that would descend on the village if plans were to be approved.

Councillor Michael Firmager (Conservative), Sonning’s sole representative on the borough council, objected to the plan.

While Cllr Firmager said he was not against the “increase in educational opportunities at the school, he argued new pupil and staff numbers represented a “huge increase”.

He added that the projected increase of 122 cars was a low estimate, and constituted  “a tremendous increase on Sonning’s already clogged up roads”.

The school’s expansion was also opposed by Sonning Parish Council, which had similar objections over the increase in traffic and fears over the lack of parking.

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Reading Blue Coats currently has an agreement with the Berkshire County Sports Club opposite to park  70 cars and 10 coaches at the club during school hours. The agreement was made in August 2019 and runs until 2040.

The increase in pupil numbers at Reading Blue Coats is subject to an expansion of the car park at Berkshire County Sports Club, which is a separate planning application. The plan, Wokingham Borough Council reference 210694 – would see the car park expand to a capacity of 168 spaces.

Cllr Trefor Fisher, representing Sonning Parish Council at the meeting, said approval of both plans “would be a disaster to the village of Sonning.”

Objectors concerns were rebuffed by council officers, with the council’s highways development manager Judy Kelly saying that, in the worst case scenario,  queues would increase from one to four vehicles.

The increase in pupil numbers at Blue Coats School, planning application 210693, was approved unanimously by the planning committee.

You can see how the meeting unfolded in the tweet thread below: 

Cllr Pauline Jorgensen (Conservative, Hillside) successfully proposed an informative asking the school to work with the council to encourage more pupils to cycle.