Disadvantaged young people in north Shropshire may soon be able to gain vital life skills at a purpose built vocational training centre in Harmer Hill, if planners give the go-ahead to the scheme.
Applicants Bryn Melyn Care have dedicated the past 25 years to trying to provide the best life possible for young people in their care who come from a variety of backgrounds and who may have experienced abuse, trauma or family breakdown.
Statutory education is currently provided by Smallbrook School in Whitchurch, but the applicants state a need has since been identified for a facility to offer training, work based learning opportunities and employability skills for 14 to 19 year olds.
Plans have been submitted to Shropshire Council for a change of use from a former carpentry manufacturers next to Sleap Airfield into a vocational training centre offering a range of skills including carpentry and joinery, automotive mechanics, hair and beauty, horticulture, brick laying, plumbing, and design and technology.
It will provide nationally recognised and City and Guilds accredited training opportunities and relevant work experience placements. Under the proposals, the four single storey buildings would be transformed into 14 classrooms, a woodwork room, sports hall, bricklaying, plastering and decorating room, an automotive mechanics room, staff and pupil toilets, a separate office and parking space.
The applicants anticipate that the centre, which would be open from 8am-5.30pm, Monday to Friday, would create two full-time jobs and two part-time jobs.
In a design and access statement, it states: “In the past young people have attended local training centres and colleges, but this has proven difficult for them to sustain due to an understandable lack of tolerance in relation to difficulties in behaviour management and negative peer group interaction.
“A high proportion of the young people cared for by Bryn Melyn have special educational needs and associated statements including autism and Aspergers syndrome, which makes group interaction very difficult.
“The site at Sleap offers sufficient accommodation to provide a wide range of relevant training opportunities. Young people in the care of Bryn Melyn are from Ellesmere, Whitchurch and Shrewsbury, the site at Sleap is therefore centrally located and accessible for a number of young people to attend successfully.”
Brian Williams, Shropshire councillor for the area, welcomed the scheme, which has won the full approval of Myddle and Broughton Parish Council.
He said: “It’s a very beneficial use of a site that has been vacant for some time. It seems to me to be just the right sort of place to develop for a scheme of this nature.”
Planners are due to make a decision this month.
by Charlotte Hester