School on attack as upgrade scheme under fire

Hymers College has run into opposition over the plans for a three-storey learning resource centre and music block, which it wants to build just off Hymers Avenue, in Hull.

However some residents are objecting to a building, that one of them described as “totally out of character” with large expanses of brick and glass, directly opposite Edwardian homes.

There is also concern over plans to cut down a number of mature trees.

Earlier this year the school’s plans for a new access road through a row of trees, further down Hymers Avenue, including a massive horse chestnut, were rejected by Hull Council’s planning committee after receiving more than 100 objections.

Already around 20 to 30 objections have already gone in to Hull Council over the latest application.

A letter from headteacher David Elstone to residents on Hymers Avenue and Sunny Bank says the school wants to “set out the facts” after the residents association circulated a letter the school claims contained “inaccurate and potentially misleading” information.

Eight trees will be felled, but the school says 32 new specimens will be planted.

There’s also a difference of opinion about the impact of the new building on the area.

One objector wrote: “It is disproportionately large – its footprint being almost 80 per cent of the main school building and it towers over our terrace. It doesn’t reflect the surrounding buildings in any way – either the main school building or the Edwardian residences of Hymers Avenue and it will affect the overall character and appearance of the conservation area.”

Another said the new building should be in a more discreet location, adding: “The proposal is totally out of keeping with the ambience and architecture of the street, as is the removal of historic trees.”

But the school claims the design is “wholly appropriate” and says the two-storey section of the learning resource centre, closest to the people’s houses, “was in proportion” and will not tower over them or put them in the shade.

Mr Elstone said the school wanted to keep up standards by providing “the very best” teaching methods and facilities.

He said: “Hymers is one of the country’s best performing schools and continues to rise up the national league tables at both GCSE and A-level.

“To maintain this excellent level of achievement we need to provide the very best in both teaching methods and facilities.

“The learning resource centre (LRC) will be the intellectual and literary hub of the school, providing excellent, modern facilities that will replace some rather out-dated parts of the school’s estate.

“To date, the school has received a handful of formal objections to the plan and I am more than happy to meet with any local resident to discuss the proposed development in detail.

“The LRC is an important step forward in the life of Hymers College and will help to provide the very best educational facilities for pupils from all parts of Hull and East Yorkshire for many years to come.”

Several related applications will be heard at a planning meeting on December 4 at the earliest.

The LRC, which will incorporate a gym dating back to the late 1890s, will house the school’s books as well as providing an area where pupils can edit and produce videos and record TV programmes, a new exhibition space, archive facility and teaching and conference rooms.

Construction is expected to take about 40 weeks.

The school, which opened in 1893 on the site of the city’s old Botanic Gardens, takes its name from the Reverend John Hymers, Rector of Brandesburton, who left a bequest in his will for a school “for the training of intelligence in whatever social rank of life it may be found”.