FRESH plans to open a special educational needs school near Worcester have been revealed after a previous scheme was turned down at appeal.

Our Place Group runs a residential boarding school in Bransford and currently caters for up to 10 students.

But it wants to convert some of its buildings into a day school so it can educate up to 45 children.

“Our Place can provide additional specialist education places, for which there is a significant unmet demand, now,” the group says in its latest plan.

“Our Place has identified there is a far greater demand for day school places, than residential accommodation.

READ MORE: Rejected plan for special needs school goes to appeal

“This has led [to] Our Place deciding to focus on day school provision, with only the Lakeside building supporting a small number of residential students.”

The company currently has 95 employees and says it would need another 32 to support the increase in pupil numbers if the school was allowed to expand.

Previous plans to expand the school were turned down by Malvern Hills District Council in November 2023 and dismissed at appeal in August.

Planning inspector Ben Plenty had no issue with the location of the proposed school, despite it being in open countryside.

“The appellant explains that many of the pupils are sensory learners who gain from being in an environment that is peaceful and uncrowded,” he said.

“Accessibility to outside space and a quiet environment is highly conducive to the development of the pupils.”

But Mr Plenty said the positives did not outweigh fears that access to the site from the A4103 would “jeopardise highway safety”.

“I am sympathetic to the needs of the school and attending children, but it has not been shown that the harm caused to highway safety can be overcome by conditions,” he said.

In its latest plans, Our Place says it has taken the inspector’s comments into account.

It proposes cutting back trees and taking down fences near the entrance to the site in order to improve visibility.

Parent Dean Canning said: "I support this planning permission. The school has changed ours and our son's life so much.

"The staff work so hard and are just trying to provide a safe place for students who don't fit in to the mainstream, they provide support for us families and they deserve to be able to offer this to more families and more students."