A TEIGNBRIDGE primary school’s bid to expand its nursery provision by installing a new unit on its grounds has been rejected by planners.

Submitted by Shaldon Primary School, the application - reference 25/01258/FUL - sought permission for a single storey modular nursery building to provide dedicated nursery facilities, including a multi-use hall, office, quiet room, kitchenette, storage and toilets.

But Teignbridge District Council (TDC) refused to grant planning permission.

‘The proposed building is considered to be of poor, low quality and unsympathetic design and utilises inappropriate and unsympathetic materials’, the council said in its decision notice.

‘It is considered to be out of keeping with the character of the area and fails to preserve or enhance the Shaldon Conservation Area and wider setting of the nearby Grade I Listed Church of St Peter’, the council added.

The risk of flooding and the arboricultural impact of the proposals were also cited as reasons behind the council’s decision.

The proposal will provide ‘a fuller educational offering to the local community’, the design, access and heritage statement for 25/01258/FUL says.

It will also offer nine new staff positions, directly linked to the nursery, the statements adds.

At present, the school offers a non-residential educational setting for four to 11-year-olds.

The provision of the nursery building will ‘extend this provision to facilitate a much needed pre-school offering on the site – a provision for which there is a deficit locally’.

Shaldon Primary School was among five Devon schools that received awards from the Department for Education’s school-based nursery capital grant.

The grant was for schools to either build new nurseries or expand their existing facilities.