10 November 2021 – Alkerden education campus gets the green light in Ebbsfleet Garden City

Plans to build a huge education campus in Ebbsfleet Garden City have now been approved.

The Alkerden education campus will be one of the largest educational facilities ever to be built in Kent and will provide more than 2,200 places to nursery, primary and secondary school pupils on an 11.1 hectare site.

The scheme is placed within the Ebbsfleet Garden City, one of the most extensive development sites in the Thames Gateway, where 15,000 new homes are planned.

Ubu will be providing the landscape design for the project, working with architects Lee Evans Partnership on behalf of the developer and landowner, Henley Camland.

The project accommodates an eight-form-entry secondary school and a two-form entry primary school and nursery with a community sports centre and sports pitches, as well as play areas and car and cycle parking. The primary school on the Education Campus is expected to open a year later than the secondary school.

The new on-site secondary school will have space for 1,680 pupils, including a sixth form and a 25-place special resource provision for autistic pupils.

It will be accompanied by a primary school with room for 446 pupils and will also cater for early years and special educational needs.

Careful consideration has been given to access and circulation routes across the site’s sloping landscape. Level changes, together with the use of various textures and materials, will help to engender a sense of place.

Plans for 126 new homes at Ebbsfleet Green, an existing community in the Garden City have also been approved.

The one and two-bedroom homes will have 47 affordable homes including five wheelchair accessible properties.