Plans are in to convert seven-bedroom home into boarding house for Wisbech Grammar School
Wisbech Grammar School’s plans to extend its international cohort are still on track with renewed plans for a new boarding house.
The school has applied for planning permission to convert a seven-bedroom property at 8 The Water Gardens into a five-bedroom boarding house.
The move comes just four months after the school was forced to withdraw a previous application to convert a house on North Brink into boarding accommodation after the purchase of the property fell through.
A design and access statement drawn up by Andrew Dighton, the school’s facilities manager, in support of the proposal explains 8 The Water Gardens had until it was recently purchased by Wisbech Grammar been a residential dwelling.
He said the school had bought the property with the intention of converting into a boarding house for international students together with associated accommodation for staff.
The statement says the school currently has a boarding house on its own site, Hazel House, and this will continue to be used alongside 8 The Water Gardens.
The property will have a permanent house master as well as space for a visiting tutor to stay when necessary. There will also be support staff to clean and do the pupils' laundry.
Pupils will live in the house during term time and also half-term holidays but will be away during the main school holidays. However, the house master will live at the property all year round.
Mr Dighton's statement says: "Our plan is to complete the internal alterations that do not require planning permission by the end of 2020. In early January the house master would move into the property then subject to change of use approval we would hope to bring pupils into the building during January/February 2021."
He also explains there are no current plans to change the design of the house, and apart from minor external alterations moving doors and windows to allow the internal spaces to work better for the new use, the only significant change would be to convert the existing garage into a bedroom.