A NEW school will have even more spaces for SEND pupils after changes to its design were given the go ahead.
The multi-million pound Hawthorns project will see it relocate from Audenshaw to Longdendale Playing Fields in Mottram.
Now the £13 million centre will have an extra 26 places after Tameside Council decided to allow alterations to the original design.
Internal changes to the building will provide the additional spots while amending the specification will allow a provision for pupils with additional language and communication needs.
Tameside Council and the New Bridge Multi-Academy Trust, of which The Hawthorns is part, will fund the £92,324.76 it will cost for the extra spaces equally.
And in an executive decision, the authority says it wants by the end of the year a further report to address the intentions for the Audenshaw site currently occupied by The Hawthorns.
That will be surrendered to the council on occupation of the new site.
Work is currently ongoing to build the new school off Manley Grove inn Mottram and when finished, it will be a one-storey building of 43,460 sq ft, with full-size grass playing pitch and a smaller 3G pitch, parking, landscaping and other infrastructure.
The Hawthorns said it had to move, describing the existing site as dated and too small.
Bosses wanted to open the new building by September but the decision in November detailed the changes that will take place, including alterations to walls, carpets and a physio facility being merged into one room.
An art room will now be a sensory room while fencing, the courtyard design and barriers will also be amended.
When approving the scheme, members of Tameside Council’s Speaker’s Panel (Planning) committee agreed with officers that the need for the school outstripped the playing fields’ status as protected green space and that the community will be able to use the improved facilities outside of school hours.