A Brighouse primary school which is short of space is seeking temporary permission for a portable building for staff – for two years – and a permanent new car park.

Calderdale Council wants to make the changes at Field Lane Primary School, at Burnsall Road, Rastrick.

If approved, this will involve placing the new block – a single storey building – at the front of the school’s main site, which currently includes parking space.

Permission for a temporary portable building and permanent new car park is sought for Field Lane School, Rastrick, Brighouse. Picture: Google Maps

It will include a staff room, a meeting room, some storage space and toilets which will serve a special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) unit which is being housed in the former Children’s Centre part of the building, says a supporting statement produced for the applicant by the company Portakabin.

In the application to the authority’s planners, it says siting the portable building here will mean 17 spaces of the existing car park will be lost.

In turn, the application seeks permission for creating 380 square metres of new hardstanding in order to create a new 500 square metre car park with space for 16 cars.

A smaller portion of existing car park space – still available after the portable building has been put up – will also still be able to be used for some parking.

The new car park will be a permanent feature on the north east corner of the site, according to the application.

The supporting statement argues the context for the application is that: “Put to full use, the existing facilities cannot support the teaching staff comfortably, hence why a new staff support facility is needed.

“It is hoped that after the two-year period, the school is able to accommodate these staff back within the main school and the temporary buildings at Field Lane would no longer be necessary.”

The statement also argues why the building needs to be placed at the front.

Sitting the modular building at the back of the school would attract “significant costs associated with forming a temporary haul road to provide access – this would likely cut across the existing playing field and thus implicate consultation with Sport England,” it claims.

In the past the school, for children aged three to 11 and including a nursery, has used modular buildings in the past, so this proposal is not considered out of keeping, argues the applicant, with any public rights of way unaffected.