A SECOND bid has been made to create a new entrance to a popular St Albans secondary school and build up to 75 new homes on its current playing field. The first application from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to develop land to the nor

A SECOND bid has been made to create a new entrance to a popular St Albans secondary school and build up to 75 new homes on its current playing field.

The first application from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to develop land to the north of Winches Farm in Hatfield Road, St Albans, and the adjoining Beaumont School was turned down by planners last June.

Now a new scheme has been submitted in a bid to overcome some of the reasons why the first application was unsuccessful.

The scheme proposes to create an entrance to Beaumont School from Hatfield Road, lay new sports pitches and an all-weather pitch, build new classrooms and a sports hall and include a residential development up to a maximum of 75 homes on the existing playing field.

The first application was turned down for a variety of reasons including its Green Belt location, overdevelopment of the site, harm to adjacent landscaping and woodland and the impact on highway safety.

The new application has revised the design and layout of the residential element of the scheme and redesigned the proposed sports pitches so they can be accommodated without harming trees and vegetation.

The planning statement accompanying the application also maintains that the improvements to Beaumont are needed so badly that any harm to the Green Belt would be limited and far outweighed by the benefits.