Council planners have given the green light for a college group to press forward with its major expansion plans.

Coventry City Council has approved a planning application for the National Mathematics & Science College to convert a former office block at Westwood Business Park into an "education building".

The project will see the college double its teaching capacity with the three-storey Greenwood House building adding to its existing site at the business park.

Signing off on the application, a council report said: "In this case the application seeks consent for the change of use of the building, whilst minor amendments and upgrades will be carried out to the building itself it is not considered that any harm to the appearance of the building would be resultant from the development.

"The primary design changes would relate to the amendments to the car park and re-organisation of the site for the parking and drop off area.

"These changes are deemed very minor in nature and would rationalise the site, allowing for areas of hardstanding to be retained/sectioned off for use by students."

Opened in 2016, the National Mathematics & Science College offers mainly STEM courses to children aged 15 to 19.

The independent college also offers boarding locally.

advertisement

"The change of use of Greenwood House would enable the college to provide high quality, specialist STEM education to approximately 300 local and international students," the application said.

Previously Greenwood House was used by E-ON which left in April 2023.

The unit has been vacant since with continued marketing bringing a "significant lack of interest".

"In its current vacant state, Greenwood House is not fulfilling its consented employment use, providing any local employment opportunities, nor is it delivering any other benefits," the application continued.

The college said the change of use would allow it to employ another 75 members of staff, doubling the number of full time employees. Most of these would be teachers.

The application added: "Calculations conclude that the change of use from office to education will result in a significant reduction in the number of vehicle trips, from 509 trips for the existing office use down to 262 with the proposed education use. 

"The proposed educational use will therefore have a positive impact on traffic compared to its existing office use."

See the full application here.

advertisement