AS predicted in a recent Thurrock Nub News story, a local educational trust has submitted an application to turn an emergency construction in the green belt into a permanent fixture.

The bid to create a nursery for 110 children is being backed by Thurrock Council's children's services department.

A temporary detached classroom block was built in 2022 to increase capacity while the Orsett Heath Academy off Stanford Road was being developed.

The building included seven additional classrooms as well as an office, toilets, and stores and was open for pupils from September 2022 for a two-year period.

The main school site and buildings was opened in September 2024 after which the interim building was used for educational and sports provision. This building is now used by both Orsett Heath Academy and Thurrock Rugby Club.

The 'temporary building' at the rugby club.

A joint application by the South West Essex Community Education Trust (SWECET) and Thurrock Rugby Club seeks permission to permanently retain the temporary building to provide "urgently needed" nursery school places from September.

It will also provide facilities for SEN children including cooking and nutrition facilities, an external area for a forest school and a dance studio for extracurricular activities. It will also accommodate staff facilities, toilets and a new wheelchair accessible lift to the first floor.

The external appearance of the building will be "softened" with timber cladding.

The application says: "It is considered that Very Special Circumstances apply to this proposal regarding the nursery school child places it would provide within the community, at a time when the demand is very high.

"The site is within the boundary of an existing education and sports facility and secures strong links with those uses."

It added: "This site provides an excellent opportunity to increase numbers in Thurrock to accommodate the desperate need for child places. Other sites have been investigated and mitigated for numerous reasons such as being financially unviable and not sustainable in terms of location and transport.

"This site's history provides an ideal environment for the proposed use with secure boundary fencing and other on-site school uses retained, ensuring strict safeguarding and protection of the Nursery school children."

Thurrock Children's Services' Childcare Sufficiency team has supported the application, but the council's highways team has expressed some reservations, saying: "It is likely that the traffic from the new proposed nursery will add to the traffic in the area and may impact to a more significant degree than set out in the assessment."

Under the original application, the site should have been taken down in April last year, but Thurrock Council has said it declined to take enforcement action becasue it was aware a new application might be submitted.

As the previous planning application for the temporary classrooms was considered by planning committee, the decision on whether it remains will go before a futire meeting of the committee.