Lyde Green schools building work due to start in Bristol after years of delays

Building work is due to start for two new schools in a housing estate north-east of Bristol, after years of delays.

Builders will start work on constructing a new primary school and high school in Lyde Green, which is rapidly expanding, in March 2024.

The schools will be built next to each other on the eastern end of Honeysuckle Road and will both open to the first set of pupils in September 2026.

The primary school will provide a new home for Lyde Green Primary School with 420 places, while the secondary school will provide 900 places for children aged 11 to 16.

The two schools were originally due to open in September last year, but the project was hit with delays due to the pandemic and inflation.

South Gloucestershire Council bosses welcomed the progress during a cabinet meeting on Monday, December 11.

Labour Councillor Ian Boulton, co-leader of the council, said: “Lyde Green remains a missing link which affects not only the immediate vicinity but the ripples affect the whole authority. After a number of false starts by the previous administration, we had to effectively take a standing start to deliver these schools in Lyde Green.”

The council has now taken legal ownership of the land where the schools will be built.

Contracts for the work are expected to be awarded in February next year, with construction beginning in March.

Due to the lack of school places nearby, children from the area have had to travel long distances to get to school while waiting for the development to start.

Several bus routes across the region were axed earlier this year, after council leaders failed to agree to raise enough money to pay for unprofitable services making it even harder for some children to get to school.

Conservative Cllr Liz Brennan said: “There is a lack of school buses in South Gloucestershire and this is impacting parents and carers in their school choices.

Liberal Democrat Cllr Chris Willmore, cabinet member for education, said: “Long-term, the only solution to some of the issues is getting the Lyde Green schools open as quickly as humanly possible.

"The fact is we just don’t have enough secondary places, so people are having to make journeys they would otherwise not want to make," he said.

Cllr Willmore added: “The ideal is you get every school up to such a standard that everybody is going to their local school, and hopefully they live much closer and within walking distance from their schools."

Credit: Alex Seabrook / Local Democracy Reporting Service