A main road closed for more than eight weeks while work is completed to connect a bridge leading to a 2,500-home housing development has now reopened bang on schedule.
Since May, motorists have been forced to endure an eight-mile diversion from the A38 at Branston to Tatenhill village, following the closure of Branston Road.
The diversion was put in place by Staffordshire County Council, which closed the route while work began to connect a bridge to the new infrastructure associated with the Branston Locks housing development.
It come as the latest images have been released of the development, which is to the south west of Burton, and will see 400 acres of land immediately west of the A38 built on with a whopping 2,500 new homes. There will also be a range of community facilities and a 50-acre 'employment site', which will include new units for businesses and factories.
It will also include a new secondary school catering for approximately 1,500 pupils.
Barton under Needwood-based secondary school John Taylor High School will run the new £30 million school currently being built in Tatenhill, which will be one of the largest free schools in the country. The Department for Education announced that the John Taylor Multi Academy Trust (MAT) has been successful in its application to run the new free school.
Opening in September 2018, the new school will cater for 11 to 18 year-olds from across Burton, and particularly from new housing developments in and around Branston Locks.
The school – the first secondary school to be built in Staffordshire for almost 20 years – was one of 131 new free schools announced in this latest wave of applications.
What is a free school?
Free schools are funded by the government but aren't run by the local council. They have more control over how they do things. They are "all-ability" schools, so can't use academic selection processes such as a grammar school.
Free schools can:
- set their own pay and conditions for staff
- change the length of school terms and the school day
- They don't have to follow the national curriculum, though some choose to do so
Free schools are run on a not-for-profit basis and can be set up by groups such as:
- Charities
- Universities
- Independent schools
- Community and faith groups
- Teachers
- Parents
- Businesses
